An experiment was conducted to determine whether amount of sleep can impact individuals in a negative way. All participants experienced three sleep conditions during the time span of three weeks. The first week, participants were allowed to sleep 8 hours per night. The second week, participants slept 6 hours per night, and the third week, they slept 4 hours per night. At the end of the three-week period, participants were scored on their level of alertness using a cognitive task. The experimenters asked whether there would be a significant difference in alertness due to sleep condition.