Losing sleep to watch the night-sky: the relationship between sleep-length and noctcaelador

College Student Journal, March, 2005 by William E. Kelly, Callie Rose

This study explored the relationship between noctcaelador (psychological attachment to the night sky) and habitual sleep-length. University students (N = 383) reported their typical sleep-length and completed the Noctcaelador Inventory. The results indicated that individuals who scored higher on the Noctcaelador Inventory reported significantly less habitual sleep-length. Directions for future research are offered.

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For most of history, humans have been watching the night-sky (Hawkins, 1983). Historically, individuals have watched the night-sky for aesthetic appreciation and to gain insights and knowledge (Brecher & Feirtag, 1979). Despite the long history of night-sky watching among humans and the apparent importance of the behavior to large groups of contemporary individuals (i.e., amateur astronomers), this behavior has only recently become a focus of scientific study.

To provide a foundation for studying night-sky watching, Kelly (2003) surveyed a small sample of college students about their attitudes towards the night-sky. The results indicated two important findings: 1) there was a general positive attitude towards night-sky watching and 2) a single underlying construct appeared to account for night-sky watching attitudes. Kelly termed this construct noctcaelador, psychological attachment to the night-sky. Kelly and Kelly (2003) found that noctcaelador appears to influence night-sky watching behaviors and some basic night-sky related life decisions. One finding of Kelly and Kelly pertinent to the present study was that individuals higher in noctcaelador are also more likely to report sacrificing sleep the night before a personally important event to watch the night-sky. It is possible, therefore, that higher noctcaelador individuals might generally attain less sleep at least partially as a result of night-sky watching behaviors. If this is the case, individuals scoring higher on a measure of noctcaelador should also tend to report less habitual sleep. The present research sought to empirically explore this possibility.

Method

Participants and Procedure

After obtaining informed consent, 383 students (300 females) enrolled in undergraduate psychology courses were administered the self-report measures described below. The average age of the sample as 24.4 years (SD = 6.9). the majority of the sample (79%) identified themselves as White/Caucasian.

Measures

Sleep-length. Sleep-length estimates were self-reported as a continuous variable by using the method of Kumar & Vaidya (1984), whereby participants were asked to write the number of hours and minutes they habitually sleep in a 24-hour period.

Noctcaelador Inventory, (NI). The NI (Kelly, 2004) is a 10-item self-report scale designed to measure psychological attachment to the night sky. Participants respond to items using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = "strongly disagree" to 5 = "strongly agree." Items are summed to produce a total NI score; higher scores indicate greater levels of noctcaelador. Kelly (2004) found the NI to have a good internal consistency ([alpha] = .92), test-retest reliability (.88, one month), and validity.

Results and Discussion

Descriptive statistics of the measures used in this study were: NI--M = 27.5, SD = 8.5, coefficient alpha = .93; habitual sleep-length--M = 7.0 hours, SD = 1.4, ranging from 3 to 14.5 hours. To examine the relationship between sleep-length and NI scores, a simple regression was calculated using sleep-length as the predictor and NI scores as the criterion. Sleep-length accounted for a significant 5% of the variance in NI scores, F (1,381) = 19.7, p < .001. The model resulted in a beta coefficient of -.22. Therefore, individuals higher in noctcaelador were more likely to report habitually attaining less sleep.

These results are consistent with previous findings that higher noctcaelador is associated with night-sky watching behaviors which may reduce sleep, i.e., sacrificing sleep the night before a personally important event to watch the night-sky. It is possible, therefore, that higher noctcaelador individuals attain less sleep at least partially because of night-sky watching behaviors. From these results, of course, a causal connection cannot be made. It is also possible that individuals who habitually sleep less merely watch the night sky as an activity to fill their sleepless time. Finally, individuals who sleep less also tend to experience a myriad of unpleasant psychological symptoms such as anxiety (Kumar & Vaidya, 1984). It is possible that the underlying mechanisms which influence these unpleasant psychological symptoms also somehow influence attitudes towards the night-sky. Future research should investigate these possibilities.

References

Brecher, K., & Feirtag, M. (Eds.) (1979). Astronomy of the ancients. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hawkins, G.S. (1983). Mindsteps to the cosmos. New York: Harper and Row.

Kelly, W.E. (2004). Development of an instrument to measure noctcaelador: Psychological attachment to the night-sky. College Student Journal. 38, 100-102.