By Caroline Jacoby ’22 and Sandra Koretz ’22
 About 100 current seventh grade students are participating in a study with the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.  The study records sleep and physical activity trends among the seventh graders and follows them through 12th grade. Information is gathered in three ways: data collecting watches, sleep charts and an app called Patient Pal Pro. The study is designed to determine what factors affect academic, social and athletic success.
Watches will be worn for one week each year and during periods of injuries in which participants cannot engage in physical activity, but there are no results that can be gathered so far.
The study was created to collect information about student sleep with an athletic component as well, but according to Director of The Institute of Scholastic Sports Science and Medicine David Hinden, the study is also beneficial for teaching students about research and gathering data.
“We are hoping that the study will identify the factors leading to academic, social and athletic success, but we will be looking at things like the relationship among our students between sleep, happiness, academic success [and] injury,” Hinden said.
Participating student Hope Hsieh ’23 spoke of the pros and cons of the study.
“Because we have to [use] the sleep diary and wear the watch, it teaches us responsibility and at the same time it helps us monitor our sleep. I think it’s good because it teaches us responsibility, but I also don’t like to wear the watch that much,” Hsieh said.