Behavior Modification
There are many behaviors that I participate in that negatively impact my health. One of the behaviors that I would like to examine is my habit of pressing snooze on my alarm; this behavior impacts me dramatically because almost every day I end up waking five minutes before I have to leave my house. Directly related to this behavior is my abnormal sleeping patterns. One day I will sleep approximately 4 hours and try to make up for the lack of sleep the next day with on average 14 hours of sleep. With this project I am to find strategies that will help me to maintain an ordinary sleep pattern so that I do not feel the need to press snooze repeatedly on my alarm.
Last year, I lived on campus and this behavior was not detrimental because I could wake up 5 minutes before class started and easily walk there. Yet, this year I live off campus and have to drive a 10 minutes to school. Continuing to press snooze on my alarm is a pressing issue because as winter approaches, more time will need to be committed before class to cleaning snow off my car, etc. The following graph illustrates my log of behavior: 2 days of my natural inclinations and 4 days after implementing my modification strategy.
| DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 (M) | DAY 4 (M) | DAY 5 (M) | DAY 6 (M) | # minutes snoozed | 36 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
It is evident that my baseline “normal” behavior averaged around 38 minutes snoozed. Now, when looking at this information, it is necessary to acknowledge that I do not have class at the same time every morning. Therefore, if a class is more into the afternoon, it may affect the amount of time I press snooze depending on the amount of sleep I average. This also effects my sleeping patterns because if a class is early in the morning, I get less sleep than if it’s later in the day in which I can “makeup” for the lack of sleep from the previous day. Yet, from generalizing about my regular sleeping habits, regardless of the amount of time slept I will
Last year, I lived on campus and this behavior was not detrimental because I could wake up 5 minutes before class started and easily walk there. Yet, this year I live off campus and have to drive a 10 minutes to school. Continuing to press snooze on my alarm is a pressing issue because as winter approaches, more time will need to be committed before class to cleaning snow off my car, etc. The following graph illustrates my log of behavior: 2 days of my natural inclinations and 4 days after implementing my modification strategy.
| DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 (M) | DAY 4 (M) | DAY 5 (M) | DAY 6 (M) | # minutes snoozed | 36 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
It is evident that my baseline “normal” behavior averaged around 38 minutes snoozed. Now, when looking at this information, it is necessary to acknowledge that I do not have class at the same time every morning. Therefore, if a class is more into the afternoon, it may affect the amount of time I press snooze depending on the amount of sleep I average. This also effects my sleeping patterns because if a class is early in the morning, I get less sleep than if it’s later in the day in which I can “makeup” for the lack of sleep from the previous day. Yet, from generalizing about my regular sleeping habits, regardless of the amount of time slept I will