Treatment Day 11 (Graduation Day)

No.of stars obtained till date: 9!! =P

No. of sad face obtained till date: 2

Comments:

WHEEEEE!!!~~~ itx the end of my behavior program! I hereby announce its closing ceremony! =) It was a successful program for me as I managed to reduce my average napping hours and maintained zero napping hour days for more than half the total number of treatment days. In fact it was better than i expected!

Self control behavioral modification program is really helpful as i managed to remove the behavioral excess of napping in the afternoon. I hope the results can maintain even after the program has been removed. But it is ok, even if my napping habit comes back again, i know what to do! =)

I feel that initially, it was the aim of wanting to accumulate stars to get treats that spurred me on. But after i accumulated 2 sad faces, the fear of getting the punisher of 100 situps deterred me from sleeping. Finally, after the treatment has taken place for some time, I realised that I do not think of the 100 situps or sweet treats much more as it became an intrinsic motivation to stay awake in the day time.

Last night, even though i only slept for 5 hours, i managed to stay awake in the afternoon clocking zero napping hour. This was comparatively very different from when my program initially started. On treatment day 2, when similarly, I also only slept for 5hrs the previous night, I ended up napping 2.5hrs to compensate for my lack of sleep.

I see a major improvement in my napping habit. This cheers me up greatly! =) I will do my very best to maintain the zero napping hours even after the program has stopped! It made my life better as I had more time for other activities such as studying, shopping, watching tv and even dating! =P

I AM SO HAPPY! I am FREED FROM ZZZ MONSTER!

*shoo! go away zz monster. I've won the fight. u are no longer able to control me. wahaha.

I declare stars my favourite shape now! =)

Special thanks to:

1) buddy huiting who encouraged me a lot by leaving many many many comments, dragging me to libraries to study and cheering me on =)

2) boyfriend who encouraged me a lot too by calling me at random times to check up on me, make sure im not sleeping, encouraging me and making me sit at his study desk when i studied at his house.

3) all the rest of the friends who left funny, encouraging comments for me in my blog

4) venus who came up with this project so that i had a chance to get rid of my lousy habit of napping super long hours

5) all the researchers who researched on the behavior modification programs so that i have this project! ha.

YOU ARE ALL SUPERSTARS! =P

Treatment Day 10

No.of stars obtained till date: 8

No. of sad face obtained till date: 2

Comments:

i got my star today! i am so excited..tomorrow is the last day of my treatment program! I hope i get another star tomorrow and I can make it 9 altogether! and I will have my 3rd treat! =)

i was kept busy the whole day long with a lot of work to do so i did not have any feeling of fatigue. in fact, i think i concentrated hard on writing my socio report that i forgot about my afternoon naps even though today was my free day. before i knew it, hey, it is evening! time for my stats lecture. =0 my goodness, time flies real fast..it made me wonder how much time have i wasted napping in my entire life? >.<

my baseline alone had a totalled of 18h spent on napping in just 7 days!! =0

i can watch 9 extra movies in the time saved, watch a entire series of drama series, finish writing my socio report, finish my piling school work, go shopping...etc etc...wow...ive really wasted my youth by napping so much! *horrified*

this behavior modification has shown that i can function just as well without my daily naps! *jumps in joy*

YES I CAN DO IT! I SHALL NOT NAP ANYMORE IN FUTURE! *cheers*

Treatment Day 9

No.of stars obtained till date: 7

No. of sad face obtained till date: 2



Comments:

Hey! Ive gotten another star today!! =) I feel so motivated! Without this program I would never think that it is possible that i can stick to zero napping hours for so many days. I will do my very very very best to maintain it till my program ends! Left with 2 more days! I shall not get another sad face in the 2 days left. That would be so wasted!!




I am glad i passed these 2 days of weekend without napping. That is an encouragement. I would think that since i can do it for weekends, i can maintain the zero napping hours for weekdays too since i spend more time in school!

Strangely, I am very motivated to stay awake. I had enough sleep the previous night and did not feel tired at all in the afternoon. =) Hope that i can stay this way till after exams so that I have more time to rest and study!

WHEE~ lalalala~ I CAN DO IT!

Treatment Day 8

No.of stars obtained till date: 6

No. of sad face obtained till date: 2

Comments:

*happy* I can get my 2nd treat today! I shall eat apple crumble at swensen's tomorrow!

I really put in a lot of effort to make sure I don't fall asleep today. I went to my boyfriend's house to study so as to avoid my cosy home that may induce sleep in me on a saturday. My boyfriend is very nice too. He would talk to me and check on me every once in a while to make sure that I have not fallen asleep. When i get really tired, I would talk to him to make sure I can tell myself to stay awake.

The socio literature review was really sleep inducing! The articles had super small font (about size 6-8) and many many many pages with many many many words. >.<>

I thought it was a miracle that I went through today and all the socio articles without falling asleep! *so amazed with myself* and i decided to give myself a pat on the back. *beaming with pride*

Treatment Day 7

No.of stars obtained till date: 5

No. of sad face obtained till date: 2

Comments:

Today is a great day! I was kept busy with all my project meetings today so I did not have a chance to feel sleepy! =) and I've managed to put my stars on par with sad faces. So, depending on tomorrow, I will get to see if I will get an ice-cream or 100situps!

But tomorrow is a saturday and saturday = weekend = no school! =0 and I've no plans in the afternoon. That will be a super great temptation to sleep, hopefully I can resist the temptation.. =X On the other hand, nowadays I do not feel so tired in the afternoon already, maybe after all the days of treatment, I am able to get rid of my bad habit. =P looking forward to that day!

I shall make plans to start literature review for my socio report tomorrow. With a clear goal in mind, I CANstay awake to finish my work. YES I CAN! CHOOSE WORK OVER SLEEP! <- my new motto in life..hahax..

Treatment Day 6

No.of stars obtained till date: 4

No. of sad face obtained till date: 2

Comments:

I had a super hard time fighting the zzz monsters today! I reached school at 8.30am and finished lessons at 7pm! and i had a scary stats lecture right in the morning to drain my brain cells. Luckily the fear of the 100 situps is enough to deter me from my dozing off and napping during break times. phew*

I'm sooooo glad that i managed to get another star today! Hooray! It was a really close shave. I shall remember to sleep early next wednesday night to prepare for the long thursdays.

Weekend is coming!! I am not sure if I should rejoice. hahax. I nap the most during weekends as I have no lessons in school! and it can reach 3.5hrs! *horrified*

Treatment Day 5

No.of stars obtained till date: 3

No. of sad face obtained till date: 2

Comments:

OH YES! It's the 3rd time i got a star!! I rewarded myself with ice-cream after dinner! Yummy! =) It feels good to see that I'm trying very hard to keep my nap time hours at zero. Today is especially exciting as I have collected 2 stars and 2 sad faces from the past 4 days, so depending if i fall asleep today, I would see if I will get my ice-cream or 100 situps. =0 but im so glad it was icce-cream that won! The good shall thriump over the evil. Cheers!

I better keep up with the good work. I only need 1 more sad face to get 100 situps. NOoooooo! >.<>

Treatment Day 4

No.of stars obtained till date: 2

No. of sad face obtained till date: 2

Comments: Yay! I manage to get another star today! I went to school early to study in the hss library before my lessons which is in the afternoon so that i will not nap at home while studying on my bed. =) However, I dozed off for a few minutes during lecture today! hahax.. =X

Treatment Day 3

No.of stars obtained till date: 1

No. of sad face obtained till date: 2

Comments: Today I manage to get a star for clocking zero nap hours! YAY! I am very happy! =) I studied at my desk so i removed the tendency to fall asleep on my bed. Quite a few times I was tempted to go to sleep, so i looked at this website and reminded myself of my zero nap hours goal. =)

Treatment Day 2

No.of stars obtained till date: 0

No. of sad face obtained till date: 2

Comments: Today, my behavioral modification is not successful as i took a nap of 2.5hrs in the afternoon. 2.5hrs is about my baseline average. I was really tired as I only had 5hrs of sleep the previous night. =( i shall work harder to make my program more successful.

I got a second sad face today! =( It is making me sad.

Treatment Day 1

No.of stars obtained till date: 0

No. of sad face obtained till date: 1

Comments: I decreased my sleeping hours by a little today. I asked my boyfriend to call me occasionally to make sure i am not falling asleep. I was woken up by my boyfriend's phonecall so I did not sleep for so long.

Design and Implement a Program

4. Design and Implement a Program

From the observations made in the baseline phase, I will make use of various measures to alter my behavior excess of sleeping during day time based on the antecedents for my undesirable behavior and immediate consequence that maintain the behavior of falling asleep in the day.

a) I will only study at my study desk or the dining room table. The removal of the discriminative stimulus of bed and sofa while studying will increase the behavior of achieving zero hours of nap time as I will have less chance to associate the bed or sofa with my drowsiness.

b) I will constantly remind myself to resist the urge to take naps when I am very tired by looking at the post-its and posters I have drawn up.

c) I will make use of a natural, intrinsic reinforcer to motivate myself in the treatment by reading and updating my blog and the graph daily. The happiness and satisfaction is a natural consequence I obtain from watching my sleeping hours decrease and stabilize at zero daily. It is an intrinsic form of reinforcement provided by the mere act of observing my daily graph.

d) I will make use of positive reinforcement contingency between zero napping hours and getting a treat. For each day that I manage to not nap at all during day time, I will draw a star on my notebook. When I have collected 3 stars, I will treat myself to ice-cream, chocolates, chips or any sweet desserts. I love to eat sweet treats and comfort food so it is an appetitive and pleasing stimulus for me to encourage myself to increase the behavior of achieving zero hours of nap time. Getting a sweet treat is a primary, intrinsic and artificial reinforcement that I would love to obtain as it is associated with the pleasure of eating comfort food. Since immediate reinforcement is more effective than delayed reinforcement (Powell, Symbaluk, & Macdonald, 2005), I will make use of the secondary, extrinsic and artificial reinforcer of drawing a star daily to remind myself that I met the goal that day. Drawing a star is not inherently reinforcing but it would be associated with the primary reinforcer which is getting sweet treats.

e) Since the most effective way to modify a behavior is to combine punishment of the target behavior and reinforcement of incompatible behavior (Powell, Symbaluk, & Macdonald, 2005), I will also make use of positive punishment contingency between napping and doing sit-ups. For each day that I nap regardless of the number of hours, I will draw a sad face on my notebook. When I have collected 3 sad faces, I will have to do 100 sit-ups. I hate to exercise, so doing sit-ups is an aversive stimulus to reduce my behavior excess of napping in the daytime. Doing 100-situps is a primary, intrinsic and artificial punishment that I detest as exercising is related to mental and physical exhaustion. I will make use of the secondary, extrinsic and artificial reinforcer of drawing a sad face right after I wake up from my nap to remind myself that I did not meet the goal that day. Drawing a sad face is not inherently punishing but it would be associated with the primary punisher which is doing sit-ups.

f) I will get my boyfriend to call me occasionally so that he can check if I have fallen asleep. This is a variable interval schedule as I will not be able to predict the time he will contact and check on me. The schedule would encourage me to stay awake so that I will not be asleep when he calls.

g) My buddy and friends can leave comments on my blog to encourage me when I have done well or scold me when I have not achieved zero napping hours.

Problem, Goal, Commitment & Baseline

1.1 The Problem

I am facing a serious problem of behavioral excesses. I spend too many hours on my sleep daily. This is posing a serious problem as I do not have enough time for study and other activities. Apart from the standard and usual 8hrs of sleep I try to get each night, I also have a tendency to nap an extra of about 2-3.5h of sleep in the afternoons. This amounts to about more than 10hrs of time wasted on sleep. I think this is a waste of time. I hope to correct my problem so that I have more time for other activities.

Furthermore, sleeping too much is not a socially appropriate behavior especially if I nap in the afternoon. I cannot nap in the office in future when i go out to work so it is best that I can eliminate this troubling behavior before I go out into the society to work.

Tamakoshi and Ohno (2004) conducted a longitudinal study on sleep duration (no. of hours of sleep per night) on more than 100, 000 participants for 10 years. The most no. of deaths after 10 years of study occurred for participants who slept for 10 or more hours per night. I wish to lead a healthy lifestyle so the results of this study increase my determination to solve this behavioral excess of sleeping.


1.2 The goal

I aim to reduce the number of naps hours to zero daily for more than half the number of treatment sessions so that I have only have about 7-8hrs of normal night sleep each day.

I will record the number of hours of nap time I spend each day and make a record of the baseline and during treatment results. If my results indicate that my nap hours have become stabilized at 0hrs per day for more than half the number of treatment sessions after the behavior modification program has been implemented, it would indicate that my program is successful.


2. The commitment to change

Martin and Pear (2003) has suggested some ways to ensure commitment of change. I will follow their guidelines to help plan my behavioral modification program.

a) Make a list of the benefits of the success of the behavior change

· I will lead a healthier lifestyle
· I have more time to study so I will do better and score GPA higher than 4.0
· I will have more time to engage in my favorite activities such as watching television and shopping
· I will not feel guilty for leaving my work aside to sleep
· I will not be nagged at by my mother for sleeping too much

b) Make my commitment to change publicly known to others

· I will update my progress of my behavior modification program in a this public blog
· My buddy assigned (Huiting) will read about my progress and comment on it
· I have also made known my intention (to change my sleep pattern) to my boyfriend and my parents

c) Frequently remind myself of my commitment and goal

· I wrote many post-it notes to remind myself of my goal and commitment
· I stuck the post-its on the walls of my bedroom, sofa, study desk, laptop, book shelves, bed frame, textbooks and files
· I pasted a large poster on my bed frame that says “Stay away from me. No naps for you.”
· I will write a list of work I have to do daily to constantly remind me that I have too much work to do than to spend the time sleeping

d) Invest substantial amount of time and energy in planning my program

· I analyzed all the possible causes of me falling asleep in the afternoon
· I made posters and post-its to remind myself of my goals
· I plan properly what I intend to do in my behavioral modification program
· I will keep track of my progress on a blog daily

e) Plan ahead to handle temptations

· I will get my parents to wake me up if they see me falling asleep in the day whenever I am at home
· I will walk around the house when I start feeling drowsy
· I will stand upright and hold my textbook in front of me if I feel tired
· I will get enough sleep at night so that I will not feel sleepy in the day


3.1 Baseline

There are various methods for increasing the strength of baseline and record keeping suggested by Martin and Pear (2003). I can set up external reinforcers controlled by other people to reinforce my record keeping for baseline and during treatment phase. This will help motivate me to continue taking accurate records.

a) Informing friends about my behavior modification project

· I will inform my boyfriend and buddy of my blog URL so that they can read about it. I will update them on the results and progress of my behavior modification program through my blog which I will update daily.

b) Keeping my recording graph in obvious places

· I will plot a graph to record my progress daily. This graph will be placed in my blog so that my buddy can comment on it. She can provide feedback in the comments section and this will encourage and motivate me to continue keeping records of my behavior.

Here is a graph diagram of the baseline of the no. of nap hours i took in the day from 4/10/08 to 10/10/08.

3.2 Analyze cause

Martin and Pear (2003) suggested looking at the antecedents that might be SD (discriminative stimulus) for the problem behavior and the immediate consequence maintaining the behavior excess. For my situation, it is a problem of immediate reinforcers (for problem behavior of long napping hours) versus delayed reinforcers (for Alternative Desirable Behavior of studying).

I prefer to sleep when I feel tired from studying. I have problems with delaying my gratification for sleep when I should have been spending the time on studying even though I know that studying has much more benefits than my extra time spent on sleeping. The benefits of studying such as scoring higher GPAs, doing well for exams and quizzes, not having to rush to meet project submission is delayed as compared to the immediate gratification of sleeping.

a) Antecedent for my undesirable behavior for sleeping in the day

- The discriminative stimulus for my behavior is the bed and sofa. I have a high tendency to fall asleep when i study on my sofa or bed as compared to the study desk.

- The discriminative stimuli for my behavior is the study desk in the living room. When i study at my living room desk which is faraway from the sofa or bed, I will be alert and fall asleep less.

b) Immediate consequence that maintain the behavior of falling asleep in the day

· The immediate gratification of sleeping to relieve my fatigue

c) Immediate consequence of zero hours spent on sleeping in the day

· Able to spend time on studying
· Able to watch more television drama serials