FAQ

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between stress and sleep during college. This is the first study of its kind to capture the development of sleep patterns from students' first years through graduation.

This is a 5 year study starting from Fall 2020 and ending in Spring 2025 with data collection occurring every semester (Fall and Spring). Compensation increases every year that you participate.

All 1st-year Fordham students in the class of 2025 and 2026 are invited to participate. In order to arrive at a sample that represents diverse groups equally, some statistical minority groups are oversampled. Students who self-report sleep-disordered breathing and/or international students are unfortunately not eligible for the study due to the effects on sleep. 

If you experience any issues with your sleep watch, please contact us IMMEDIATELY via email or social media and we will let you know what to do. Please DO NOT attempt to fix the issue yourself.

• Email: fuss@fordham.edu

• Instagram: FUSSatFordham

NO!!!

Only in rare circumstances where you feel the watch may be at risk of being damaged, take off the watch and put it back on IMMEDIATELY after the event. We encourage you to keep the watch on as much as possible for the most accurate data.

We can see when participants wear the sleep watch or take off the watch. Please keep the watch on your wrist! It is important that you wear the watch fitted to your wrist. 

You will receive a text to complete the final survey (approx. 30-45 minutes to complete) after the 14th day of nightly surveys. That text will also include instructions on how to sign up on SignUpGenuis to return to Delay 439 at the Rose Hill campus to drop off your watch and collect compensation. We can provide electronic Ram Van shuttle passes to students that need to commute from Lincoln Center to Rose Hill.

DO NOT take the watch off your wrist until you return it to us!

You will receive your first text at 7pm on the same day you picked up your sleep watch.

Each nightly survey should take 7-8 minutes to complete. As participants become more familiar with the questions, completion times tend to decrease. If you have not completed the nightly survey by 11pm, you will receive a reminder text. If you do not complete the nightly survey by 5am the following morning, you will receive a text notifying you that the survey for that day is closed, but you are still eligible to continue with the remaining nightly surveys until you have reached 14 days. 

This is completely fine! You do not need to alter your sleep schedule. We want to know your natural sleep patterns.

We are interested in your mental and physical health. The biomarker collection is one way to assess physical health. As part of the study, we will collect a few blood samples, hip/waist measurements, height/weight measurements, blood pressure, and hair samples. You will receive additional compensation for providing the biological samples. You have the option not to provide biological markers; however, we encourage all participating students to engage in all parts of the study. 

You cannot receive both research credits and cash for the first survey.

If you are enrolled in Foundations of Psychology, you can choose to receive two SONA credits for the first survey. If you opt to receive SONA credit for the first survey, you will only receive cash compensation for subsequent portions of the study (i.e., nightly survey completion, biomarkers, post-survey).