Lesson 4: Sleeping

Introduction

Teenagers need to sleep:

• to maintain a healthy body

• keep their immune system working well

• maintain good mental health

• boost their energy levels, learning and ability to concentrate

• store things in their long term memory.

Each person has their own need for sleep. This need may vary from one person to another. Teens are at an important stage of their growth and development and they need more sleep than adults. Most teenagers need 8-10hours of sleep each night to feel alert and well rested. Lack of sleep can make it harder to regulate emotions, pay attention and do well at school and get along with others. Being tired all then time has been linked to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Shift in Sleep

Puberty is a time when your body begins to go through many changes. One change in the body during puberty is closely related to how you sleep. There is a shift in the timing of your circadian rhythms. Before puberty, your body makes you sleepy around 8:00 or 9:00 pm. When puberty begins, this rhythm shifts a couple hours later. Now, your body tells you to go to sleep around 10:00 or 11:00 pm. The natural shift in a teen's circadian rhythms is called "sleep phase delay." The need to sleep is delayed for about two hours. At first, teens may appear to be suffering from insomnia. They will have a hard time falling asleep at the usual time. While they begin going to sleep later, they still need an average of nine hours of sleep at night.

There are many factors that keep teens from getting enough sleep. Causes for their lack of sleep include the following:

• Rapidly changing bodies

• Busy schedules

• Active social lives

• A wrong view of sleep

Teen sleep problems can begin long before they turn 13. The sleep habits and changing bodies of 10 to 12-year-olds have a close link to the teen years. The sleep patterns of teens are also firmly set in their lives. It is not easy for them to change the way they sleep. Thus teen sleep problems can continue well into their years as adults.

How to Help?

1.Waking, sleeping and napping routines

• Keep wake-up times on school days and weekends to within two hours of each other

• Get out of bed when they wake up in the morning, rather than staying in bed

• Spend the hour before lights out doing relaxing activities like reading a book, listening to music or having a warm shower or bath

• Keep daytime naps to no more 20 minutes and make sure the nap is in the early afternoon.

2. Sleep environment

• Electronic devices off at least one hour before bed.

• NO electronic devices in bedroom or if you needed for alarm clock place them in do not distrub mode.

• Sleep space should be quiet, cool and dim lit or dark.

3. Good health and nutrition

• Don't go to bed feeling hungry or too full as it can make it harder to get to sleep.

• Get outside in natural light as much as possible during the day, especially in the morning. This helps the body produce melatonin at the right times in the sleep cycle.

• A healthy breakfast kick starts the body clock.

• Avoid caffeine in energy drinks, coffee, tea, chocolate and cola after 11 am.

• Exercise/physical activity during the day, but not too late at night.

4. Reduce Worries, fears and anxiety

• Worries can keep you awake at night so try talking about the worries together during the day.

• Use mindfulness exercises to calm an anxious or active mind before sleep. Can be done while lying in bed.

Lesson: Brainstorm and Sleeping Log

Materials

Whiteboard or flipchart paper

Markers

How?

• As a whole class or in groups of 3 brainstorm:

  • • • what helps you sleep

      • what does not help you sleep

      • what do you do to get back to sleep if you wake up

      • bed time routines

      • bed times

• Print off a sleeping log for each student to fill out.

• After one week get students to compare sleep logs and repeat above brainstorm. Show videos before, during week or after the week as a debrief to the sleep log