The Design of My Personal Jet Lag Experiment

Everyone once in their lifetime has experienced jet lag. Jet lag is caused of sleep deprivation and the changing of environments when going from one-time zone to another. Jet lag can be experienced from the age of a kid, all the way to an adult. This experience is common when going to work or travelling frequently. Now you may ask, how can we fix this? How can we prevent jet lag from happening to individuals? Stating so, I have come up with an example of using melatonin as a treatment.

In this study, Melatonin is known as a hormone in our body that detects our weariness and helps us sleep profoundly. The problem in this study is that a person’s gland may be produce melatonin, but not enough that the person can sleep well. This can vary due to the amount of time they sleep and the amount they took on that dose. In this case, I truly believe that the more amount of melatonin is taken, the more an individual will rest which will result in an increase of time. To make it simple, my two independent variables will be a minimum of 1mg of melatonin and the highest being 5mg of melatonin which will manipulate the dependent variable of time.

To get clear results in my data, I will control the expansion of the dose in a short time of 2 weeks. One week will result in taking 1mg of melatonin and the second week they will take 5mg. Now, to get precise data will be determined by the time everyone goes to bed. In this study, it will be important for the subjects to record the time they will go to bed right after taking melatonin. After they wake up in the morning, they will be asked to record the time they woke up and use a word that determines how they feel. The study will be fair by using adults ages 18-20 who have no history of allergic reactions to melatonin.

In the second week, I do predict that the subjects will sleep much longer with a dose of 5mg of melatonin. This can be determined by observing the increase of hours sleep, comparing it to the first week. The data that could be used would be a scatter plot so that we find the linear fit line and determine if the results wear successful and close to the perfect fit. If it is observed that no data is close to the linear fit line, this study will be done again by changing the variables around. In the other hand, this study will have to be done with the 2 levels of independent variables since testing only one could lead to inaccurate data, as well as a lack of reasoning to unlock other studies that can be done in the future. The time in the study will stay constant to just being time, but, the time in numbers will differ depending on what time the individual may go to bed. If it seen later in the study that different times could have caused a bad experiment, it will be known for next time that there will have to be a control on the set of time the subject goes to bed.

To test out this study, I would need 30 people to participate. This will be split into 5 women and 5 men of each age from 18-20 to understand if age plays any role with the dose and time as well. There will be instructions stating to record their time before bed and after they wake up, as well as identifying their feelings in the morning. Each person will be responsible for taking their dose every day for the 2 weeks.

Because I do not need a lab for this, each record will be coming from the subjects’ home. When the study is done, I could meet with them in a place and time that is reasonable for everyone. I will then collect their information and study the results I was given. To make this study possible, it is best to do melatonin since it more manageable than aerobic exercise and light treatment. Some people could be sensitive to light, and others may not agree with aerobic exercises that they are to follow. Being sensitive to light could decrease the way a person reacts to melatonin because of their current mood.

The other treatment of aerobic exercise would have more limited results because the amount of controls the study can have. For example, there might be a certain aerobic exercise that can be done, but why not the others? This will vary on everyone’s preparation and question the right type of aerobic exercise to help with jet lag.