World Sleep Day 2021 - Helping to develop a healthy sleep routine
How many times have you noticed how a good night’s sleep can affect your wellbeing irrespective of whatever else is going on in your life?
Sleep loves routine.
Our body knows when it should be sleeping and when it should be awake. This is why our brains are built to trigger sleep through a ‘natural rhythm’ based on a number of things, including daylight exposure and the time of day. It is important to note that how our body responds to these natural triggers can vary between people, but there are a number of things you can do to support your body to find this rhythm, which this blog will outline, helping you to support your young person to find their natural sleep rhythm.
It can be difficult for young people to become familiar with their sleep rhythm, particularly following lockdown. During this time there has been less of a need to wake up at set times each morning and less of a routine with school work and extra-curricular activities. Even more so for teenagers who naturally can experience a shift in their internal sleep clock, where they are prone to be more alert and awake later in the evening and potentially into the early hours of the morning. This is also without of course, considering modern distractions and screens that most young people will engage with in the hours before bed.
Things that can be helpful to be on the lookout for when identifying a young person’s sleep rhythm is, the hours which they are actually in bed asleep (or trying to sleep) and the regular time they wake up. Approximately 7-8 hours of ‘asleep’ time is a good baseline to get the benefits from sleeping young people’s bodies need. With this in mind, you can encourage a bed time routine and wake up time around this - creating a calm, relaxing environment, that is prepared for sleep in the build up to getting into bed.
It is important to remember that the time before bed is valuable and necessary for young people to wind down from the day and prepare for the next one, so it is worth considering the following with them:
What do they want to do with their evening for themselves?
What do they need to do in preparation for their next school day?
After you have established this, you can work out how long each of these things will take after school and plan backwards from an agreed bed time. Together, you can show an appreciation of what things have to be done before school (e.g. home-learning), what your young person wants for themselves (e.g. screen time), whilst recognising and displaying that sleep is important and a routine is being implemented.
It is important that if screens or games are involved in the young person’s ‘wants’ then having time to wind down from these before going to bed is valuable - ideally 30-60 minutes beforehand as screens/gaming can leave our brains overthinking and avoiding that relaxed state we want to be in to achieve good quality sleep. Blue light blocking glasses can be a great way to block out the artificial blue light from screens in the build up to bed time that keep our brains in their ‘alert’ state - these have an orange lens and can be worn 1-2 hours before bed.
In the ‘wind down hour’ before bed, we recommend you support your young person to become more relaxed and ready to sleep by:
Keeping the room cool
Calming activities such as reading, yoga or listening to a podcast - avoiding direct eye contact with screens if possible
Having a shower - this helps to cool the body after which it prepares for sleep
Reflecting on the day - picking out some positives or things they are glad they did
We have put together a ‘Young Person’s Guide to Sleep Hygiene’ as a helpful reminder of things to do before bed. You can download this here
