SLEEPING

Dr Alex joins Braydon, 12, to find out how sleep affects your mood. What is good quality sleep and why can sleeping be difficult?

Follow up activities

These ideas are taken from PHE’s School Zone KS3 Sleep lesson plan.

Discussion: Thinking about sleep

Discuss any of the following questions:

• How would you define good quality sleep? Answers might include – length of sleep (8-10 hours) uninterrupted sleep etc.
• Why can sleeping be difficult? Answers might include- mood, thoughts, phones, screens, noises, lights, uncomfortable, stress, substances – like caffeine or alcohol.
• How would someone know they have slept well? Answers might include – feeling alert, rested, better mood, better appetite, memory.
• What are the main factors that impact sleep? Answers might include – health, stress, age, sleeping environment, diet, use of technology at bedtime and caffeine (caffeine can make it harder to get to sleep and decrease a person’s quality of sleep).
• How might someone’s sleep change with different circumstances? Answers might include – stressful situations, new environments, new baby in the house, different seasons.
• What does a good sleep routine look like to you? Answers might include – this will vary depending on the individual, but possible responses might include relaxation techniques, minimising the use of screens, and creating a bedroom environment that helps them switch off.

Activity 1: Design an app to help with sleeping

Can you help design an app or a podcast to support young people struggling with their sleep? Explain that students are going to be working in small groups to create a B-E-D app or podcast to help support young people struggling with their sleep. Each group will produce a feature of the app or podcast to give advice and suggestions in one of the three areas:

• Bedtime routine
• Bedroom environment
• Daytime routine

Allocate one of the three features to groups or allow students to choose for themselves. Show the class the second half of the NHS Better Health: Every Mind Matters video (1:28 – end) to give the students ideas. Encourage students to be creative; they could make up rhymes, draw images, suggest music or anything else to make an awesome app or podcast! Students can re-watch the video if needed. Each group can then prepare a two-minute presentation to feedback to the rest of the class.

Success criteria…try to include:

• An explanation of how either bedtime routine, bedroom environment or daytime routine benefits sleep.
• Suggestions on how to build opportunities for rest and downtime.
• Strategies for how someone could improve their quality of sleep.
• Advice on what to do if someone’s quality of sleep does not improve.

Activity 2: Positive bedroom environment

Draw an image of a positive bedroom environment and annotate it with notes on what makes good quality sleep.

Activity 3: The importance of routine

Create a poster of ways to encourage students to use less technology in their bedtime routine that could be put up around school or published in a school magazine.