Hello,

I am a researcher in sleep and circadian rhythms who is having much trouble
deciding on proper statistical analyses. Before I state my question, I
provide a brief synopsis of the looming problem; I am interested in activity
bout distributions across a 24 hr day. In addition to looking at the number
of activity bouts across the day, I am also interested in the duration of
each activity bout. My current method of analyzing numbers and durations of
activity bouts involves; 1) documenting the number of activity bouts for
each condition  (alcohol or water drinker) and then, using repeated measures
ANOVA to account for three days of activity recording 2) displaying the
number of each bout duration (expressed in 15 minute bins) in a frequency
histogram, that again, documents differences in bout number between
conditions. My concern lies in the size of the frequency bins for the bout
durations. My advisor suggested 15  min bins, my co-advisor suggests 60 min,
I think 10 min (from *Quantitative analysis of the age-related fragmentation
of hamster 24-h activity rhythms* by Plamen D. Penev, Phyllis C. Zee, and
Fred W. Turek) which leads me to my question: IS THERE A MORE CONTINUOUS WAY
OF ANALYZING ACTIVITY DURATION DIFFERENCES THAT DOES NOT INVOLVE "COUNTING"?

If you would like more insight on my experiment in order to have a more
accurate understanding of the problem, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,
Allison Brager

-- 
Graduate Student
Department of Biological Sciences
Kent State University

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