Week 5 — Sleep by the Numbers: A Sleep-Science Brief

Assignment 5 of the term — convert the timing of the first REM period, compute the mean of a sleep study's quiz scores, explain what each number can and cannot tell you, and tell a friend what the sleep evidence really shows.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a clear, evidence-based brief. You remain the author. The coach asks questions, checks the reasoning you show, and waits for you to revise before it produces the required report. In Week 2 you learned that a correlation earns the words "associated with" and nothing stronger; this week you apply that habit to a claim about sleep. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Analysis Workshop practise the same ideas from other angles; this assignment is where you put them together and explain them.

The task

Two pieces of this week anchor the assignment. First, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke reports that the first REM period comes about 90 minutes after a person falls asleep, and that most adults need about 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night. Second, in the course's illustrative dataset, ten students reported their hours of sleep the night before a quiz scored out of 20; the correlation coefficient for sleep and score is r = 0.8457. The dataset was constructed for this course to teach with; it is not from a real study.

Work these two problems, showing your arithmetic:

1. The first REM period comes about 90 minutes after a person falls asleep, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. There are 60 minutes in an hour. About how many hours after falling asleep does the first REM period arrive?
2. In the ten-student illustrative dataset, the quiz scores of the 3 students who slept fewer than 7 hours add up to 37 and the quiz scores of the 7 students who slept 7 to 9 hours add up to 110, on a quiz scored out of 20. What is the mean quiz score of all ten students?

Beside each answer, add one brief interpretation of what the number tells you and one limit of it. For problem 1, name the sleep stages that come before the first REM period in order, say which stage is the deepest and what marks REM sleep, and explain why "REM is the deepest sleep" is a mistake. For problem 2, say what r = 0.8457 shows about direction and strength, name one third variable and the directionality problem, say what kind of study could test whether sleep causes higher scores, and explain whether memory consolidation makes the claim more believable without proving it.

Explain it to a non-expert

A teammate tells you, "I read that students who sleep more get better grades, so sleep is the secret to an A — I'll sleep 9 hours before the test and I'm set." Write a 3–5 sentence message that explains, in everyday words, what a finding like this does and does not show, names one other thing that could explain it, and gives one honest reason sleep may still help. Name one limit, such as a small or made-up sample. Explain any technical term in everyday words.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a bookstore owner who noticed that customers who come to author readings buy more books and wants to know whether the readings cause the extra sales. Model answer: "The readings and the sales go together, but that does not prove the readings cause the buying. The people who come to readings may already be your biggest readers, so they would buy more anyway. To know for sure, you would need to compare similar customers where only the readings differ. Your numbers come from one store, too, so another store might see something different."

Use that pattern for your teammate, with your own explanation and evidence.

Part 1 — Student instructions

1. Draft both answers, the two brief interpretations, and your message to the teammate before opening a chatbot.
2. Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach will ask for your draft and then work one question at a time.
3. Answer in your own words. Show calculations when asked. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one calculation or explanation, even if your first attempt was correct.
4. Continue until the prompt's exit condition is met.
5. Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It must draw out your reasoning rather than write the brief for you.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful learning coach. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about consciousness and sleep: the sleep stages and the first REM period, memory consolidation, and how much a sleep correlation can claim. Do not write my assignment for me and do not invent work I did not show.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these two problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. The facts: the first REM period comes about 90 minutes after falling asleep, and most adults need about 7 to 9 hours of sleep (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke). A night moves through NREM-1, NREM-2 (sleep spindles), NREM-3 (deep, slow-wave sleep), and REM sleep (eyes dart, wake-like brain activity, voluntary muscles paralyzed, most vivid dreams); NREM-3 is the deepest stage and REM is the most brain-active. In the illustrative ten-student dataset, r = 0.8457 for hours of sleep and next-day quiz score; it is correlational, so it supports "associated with" only. Memory consolidation is the process by which a newly formed memory is strengthened and stabilized so it can last.
PROBLEM P1: The first REM period comes about 90 minutes after a person falls asleep, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. There are 60 minutes in an hour. About how many hours after falling asleep does the first REM period arrive?
PROBLEM P2: In the ten-student illustrative dataset, the quiz scores of the 3 students who slept fewer than 7 hours add up to 37 and the quiz scores of the 7 students who slept 7 to 9 hours add up to 110, on a quiz scored out of 20. What is the mean quiz score of all ten students?
After the two answers, I must briefly interpret each one: what the number tells me and one limit of it; for P1, the stages that come before the first REM period in order, which stage is deepest and what marks REM, and why "REM is the deepest sleep" is a mistake; for P2, what r = 0.8457 shows about direction and strength, one third variable and the directionality problem, what study could test cause, and whether memory consolidation makes the claim more believable without proving it. I must then write a 3-5 sentence message to a teammate who thinks sleep is the secret to an A, explaining in everyday words what the finding does and does not show, one other explanation, one honest reason sleep may still help, and one limit. I must explain technical terms in everyday words.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply: correct sleep computations (20 points), sleep science and evidence reasoning (40 points), clarity for a non-expert reader (20 points), and showing work so it can be checked (20 points). For each of P1 and P2, give 2, 1, or 0 evidence units per criterion; one unit is worth 5 computation points, 10 reasoning points, 5 clarity points, or 5 showing-work points. Sum both problems within each criterion. Count my message to the teammate only with P2, not again with P1.
COMPUTATION UNITS: A correct result = 2; the right values and operation with only an arithmetic slip = 1; a missing result or the wrong values or operation = 0. Accept equivalent correct notation, such as an hour and a half.
REASONING UNITS: For P1, the stages before REM in the right order AND an accurate account of NREM-3 as deepest and REM as most brain-active = 2; exactly one of the two = 1; neither = 0. For P2, BOTH an accurate reading of r with a named third variable or the directionality problem and a correct design for testing cause, AND a teammate message that keeps "associated with" apart from "causes" and names a limit = 2; at least one accurate substantive part = 1; none = 0. Calling REM the deepest sleep, or writing that the data prove sleep raises scores, does not count. An arithmetic slip alone is not a reasoning error.
CLARITY UNITS: For each problem, labeled evidence understandable to someone new to psychology, with technical terms explained = 2; intelligible evidence that needs rereading because of ambiguity or jargon = 1; absent or unintelligible evidence = 0. Include the teammate message with P2 if submitted. Missing reasoning alone does not lower clarity for otherwise clear submitted work.
SHOWING-WORK UNITS: For each problem, the starting values and the operation shown = 2; a relevant but incomplete value or step = 1; a result alone or no method = 0. A visible method stays checkable despite an arithmetic slip.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my answer. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. Probe an unsupported claim and ask me to examine its evidence. Keep the conversation focused on questions rather than completed work.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, copied prompt, yes/no reply, or one-word answer is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or accept agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Offer the reflection as a choice of two equally weighted prompts and let me pick one: (a) what did the revision change about how I explain the sleep stages, or (b) what would I now tell a friend differently about a sleep headline. Do not issue the report early.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied both answers and their brief interpretations AND written my message to the teammate AND revised at least one calculation or explanation AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my calculations and reasoning]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised sleep-science brief, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

• your revised sleep-science brief with both answers, their brief interpretations, and your message to the teammate — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript, or as a labelled sketch of one night's sleep cycle with a short note; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
• the coach's five-line report; and
• the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 5 skills — describing the sleep stages and the first REM period, explaining why NREM-3 rather than REM is the deepest sleep, and reading a sleep correlation as an association with a named third variable — for comparable time and effort, about 60 to 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete the same two problems, the two brief interpretations, and the message to the teammate. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, criterion by criterion, and write a second draft. Add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one calculation or explanation you changed, the evidence that prompted the change, and one question you still have. Submit the revised sleep-science brief, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The calculations, reasoning, revision, and final report must be your own. Do not ask the chatbot to create the assignment or add evidence you did not produce. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and requires no AI account.

Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com