Modifiable Behaviors: A Self Study

Day	Observations
Baseline 1	• Restless sleep • Took about an hour to sleep, perhaps influenced by phone usage
Baseline 2	• Fell asleep faster • Minor headache • Heavy dinner before sleep induced fatigue and lethargy
Baseline 3	• Fell asleep faster
Baseline 4	• Restless sleep • Waking up later helped mood
Baseline 5	• Restless sleep • Morning drowsiness • Morning hunger
Baseline 6	• Somewhat restless sleep • Early dinner, went to sleep with a little hunger
Baseline 7	• Restless sleep • Morning drowsiness • End of week resulted in low engagement but positive mood
Baseline 8	• Somewhat good sleep • Low work and stress that day
Baseline 9	• Somewhat good sleep • Perhaps due to weekend
Baseline 10	• Somewhat restless sleep • Morning drowsiness
Modified 1	• Immediate sleep • Noticed slower breathing very early in my attempt to sleep
Modified 2	• Some restless sleep due to phone usage and heavy workload • Increased productivity throughout the day
Modified 3	• Immediate sleep • Increased productivity in the morning • Effects seemed to wear off
Modified 4	• Immediate sleep • Minor headache • Meditation did have an effect on the headache
Modified 5	• Somewhat restless sleep • Easier to wake up • Woke up feeling more refreshed
Modified 6	• Immediate sleep • Effects seemed to wear off
Modified 7	• Immediate sleep • Meditation seemed to calm stress of work done before sleep
Modified 8	• Somewhat restless sleep • Minor headache
Modified 9	• Immediate sleep • Increased productivity in the morning
Modified 10	• Immediate sleep • More dreams

Baseline Measure - no 15 min meditation before sleep
Day	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Quality of Sleep (Scale of 1-5)	3	4	4	3	3	3	3	4	3	4
Productivity (1-5)	3	3	3	3	2	2	2	4	3	3
Engagement (1-5)	3	4	2	3	2	3	2	4	3	3
Mood (1-5)	3	3	2	4	3	2	4	4	3	4
Amount of sleep (hrs)	5	6	7	7	8	8	8	5	9	8
Modified Measure - 15 min meditation before sleep
Day	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Quality of Sleep (Scale of 1-5)	5	3	5	5	4	5	5	4	5	5
Productivity (1-5)	3	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	2	3
Engagement (1-5)	3	3	4	3	3	4	3	3	4	4
Mood (1-5)	4	3	3	4	4	3	4	4	3	3
Amount of sleep (hrs)	9	8	5	6	7	8	8	9	5	7

As a college student, stressful workloads, excessive technology usage before sleep, and irregular eating habits have had a negative impact on the quantity and quality of my sleep. I had trouble falling asleep and would wake up several times during the night. I would also find it incredibly hard to wake up in the morning, despite setting an alarm. After waking up, I usually felt drowsy and still had fatigue: I had trouble remaining awake and attentive in my classes. I decided that my practice of sleeping right after a strenuous activity (whether school-related or social), after phone usage, or right after a late meal was hindering my transition into sleep. I believed that the practice of meditating for 15 minutes before sleep would allow me to fall asleep faster and stay asleep, thus improving the quantity and quality of sleep. The duration of 15 minutes and the choice to do it right before sleep also made the practice easier to fit into my schedule. The method of my meditation was simple and in keeping with the kind of meditation I have been accustomed to: simply sitting in silence rather than doing any kind of guided or active meditation. I expected, based on our discussions in class, that this meditation practice, if continued long-term, could improve the trajectory of my cognitive health. This trajectory could even impact diseases of aging such as Alzheimer's, while also impacting the trajectories of normal aging in which changes occur in the frontal cortex and sleep regulation. I decided to measure the amount of sleep I had gotten each day (rounded to the closest hour) and evaluated quality of sleep, productivity, mood, and engagement. I defined engagement as my alertness, attentiveness and interest in my surroundings that day. 

During the ten days of baseline measurement, I noticed little change in sleep quality. Differences in productivity, engagement, and mood fluctuated in part due to the differences in day to day occurrences. There was a general negative trend in productivity, engagement, and mood towards the end of the week. During the ten days of modified measurement, there was less variability on the basis of daily occurrences and the negative trend in productivity, engagement, and mood throughout the week did not occur. This indicated to me that the meditation may have had an impact on improving my sleep in a way that “resetted” me for the next day and prevented the accumulation of fatigue towards the end of the week. I observed that the meditation had a specific effect on the speed of falling asleep and the depth of the sleep that stayed constant through every day of modified measurement. The practice was a relatively simple addition to my daily routine and the effects on my sleep were powerful enough for me to consider sustaining the practice. There were several quality of life changes, both subjective and measured, that I observed in the days of the modified behavior. I felt naturally inclined to sleep earlier and thus get more hours of sleep due to the fact that I was looking forward to the feeling of relaxation during meditation. This may not be a direct causal impact but it still indicated that the practice had benefited my sleep schedule. I had a general increase in the depth and restfulness of my sleep, which showed in my increased ratings of productivity, engagement, and mood during the days of modification. The general quality of my sleep, especially in regard to how often I woke up in the night, increased and this led to me being less drowsy when I woke up. If I was to summarize the several quality of life changes that occured, I would simply say that I felt more well-rested. Overall, there was a large enough improvement in the quality and quantity of my sleep for me to want to continue the practice. If I do continue, I anticipate a more permanent and cumulative benefit in comparison to the benefits of the practice over ten days.