Maudsley NHS
Sleep Hygiene – Tips for 13-18 Year Olds
welcome to the short presentation about sleep hygiene for adolescents my name is Gareth Vinton and I'm a well-being practitioner from the child well-being team within Char and Adolescent Mental Health Services for the London borrow of sub for more information about your mental health including information about sleep hygiene for children please visit our website included at the end of this video sleep it's a natural bodily process during which alertness decreases voluntary muscles become inactive and sensory activity is reduced its main purpose is to allow the body to strengthen and rebuild different parts including memory hormones in the immune system for this reason it is essential to our overall health and well-being sleep is caused by two main factors sleep drive and sleep Rhythm sleep Drive gradually builds up throughout the day as it increases the sleepier we get certain things may change the amount of sleep Drive in our body including whether we have physically exercised in the day or consumed at stimulants such as caffeine sleep Rhythm on the other hand is the set routine our body follows when it comes to helping us feel more or less awake and alert it is also influenced by the world around us such as how light or dark it is this set routine is often referred to as a circadian rhythm during adolescence young people's Cadian Rhythm often changes so that they feel sleepier later in the day as such many young people go to bed later than they used to as a child and this is quite a normal part of this stage of life it's has been found that throughout the night we pass through four distinct phases of sleep some are lighter such as stage 1 and two and some are heavier such as stage three and during RM sleep we dream a full sleep cycle usually takes between 90 and 120 minutes and passing through a number of these Cycles can leave the body well rested and restored as we now know sleep is crucial to the body's ability to maintain healthy functioning with this in mind it is important to consider a set of practices and habits that can be used to promote healthy sleep during adolescence by following these we are said to be practicing good sleep hygiene we will now discuss some sleep hygiene tips that you can try out for yourself it's important to remember that everyone's body is different and some tips will work for some and other tips work for others sometimes it may take a few nights for these practices to have an effect so give them a try and see what works for you feel free to pause this video throughout if you want to remember and take note of a particular strategy or just pause the video and take a look down sometimes napping during the day will reduce your sleep drive at nighttime make it much harder to sleep sometimes therefore it can be better to try and stay up throughout the day even if you feel tired of course sometimes taking a nap in the day might be important to get through and in this case maybe try limiting this to earlier in the day until around 20 minutes so that your sleep Drive isn't impacted later on try and get exposure to Daylight during the morning as this will help contribute to the production of melatonin which promotes sleepiness at night try and go to bed and wake up at the same time every night and try and sleep for at least 8 hours sometimes we might not be able to to get a full 8 hour sleep every now and again this isn't something to worry about getting some exercise during the day such as going for a 30 minute walk in the park can significantly increase sleep drive and make it easier to sleep at night creating a consistent nighttime ritual for example reading or applying cented oils 30 minutes before bed can help relax your body and make it easier to sleep feel free to get creative with this and personalize your own routine but try and keep less stimulating activities such as reading closer to bedtime so try and keep your room cool dark and quiet so that your senses are not engaged when trying to fall asleep if you can make sure to use your bedroom just for sleeping and try to avoid sitting in your bed during the day this will lead to your body Associated being in bed with sleep which will increase sleepiness we know sometimes this is not always possible however for example if there's not enough room anywhere else in the house if this is the case for you maybe try out some the other tips instead another of these is to avoid blue light in the time leading up to sleep try and turn off your phone or computer an hour before bed or at least put the screen on sleep light mode if you can avoid the potential for clock watching at night time by not keeping a clock within sight of your bed it can be helpful to limit stimulating substances such as sugar tea and coffee to the morning so that your body can use up the caffeine or sugar before bedtime also avoid eating large meals just before bed as the digestion of these can sometimes cause discomfort which can sometimes keep people up at night sometimes worries and stress about life may get in the way of a good night's sleep we also know that adolescence is a time of life which can bring a lot to think about from navigating new relationships dealing with school work and exams and working out who you are in your place in the world quite often we can get stuck in a vicious cycle where worries about these sort of things can interrupt sleep and this can then make us worry even more in the time leading up to sleep practicing relaxation techniques such as mindfulness and deep breathing exercises may help settle our nerves before we wind down here is a simple box breathing exercise you can try start at the top and then try Trace around the Box whilst deep breathing you can try and visualize it in your head or Draw it out in front of you try and spend 4 seconds on each slide on each side feel free to pause this video and give this a go now here is another way to manage worries write your worries down at a specific time during the day so that when it comes to falling asleep you've already made it not of them when doing so you can use the strategy included on this slide which can help sort and make sense of worries remember to keep this specific time different to the time you used to relax before falling asleep often people will be able to fall asleep but experience difficulties in staying asleep and falling back to sleep once waking up at night a simple tip for this is to avoid tossing and turning in bed as much as possible once you found yourself unable to fall asleep again leave the bed and do something relaxing in a low stimulus environment somewhere else EG reading on your desk or a chair or listening to relaxing music somewhere else in the room once you feel sleepy again then return to bed this will help to break the link that that your brain has made between being in bed and struggling to sleep this link itself can sometimes be a cause for Sleep problems for more information about sleep hygiene please visit these included websites as previously mentioned you can also find a link to suoc cwps website which includes a few more videos about sleep hygiene as well as other other areas of Mental Health remember everyone is different so the important thing is to give some of these strategies a try and see what works for you thank you for listening and good luck
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