Everyone knows what it feels like to try to get through the day if you haven’t had enough sleep. For students, that can mean having trouble learning because of difficulty concentrating, solving problems, or remembering. Sleep is a time for your brain to repair cells and build new pathways, which is critical for learning.
As part of our mental health strategy over the 2019-20 school year, teachers were provided information and tools to help teach students about:
- the importance of sleep for health and learning
- how to get enough sleep
Sleep, along with nutrition, stress management, exercise, and positive social connections, are all connected to positive mental health.
What’s the best sleep advice?
See our flyer: Sleep, Five Things You Need to Know
What students say
During the 2017-18 school year, we surveyed Burnaby Schools’ students. They told us they wanted to know more about sleep, ranking it as their second highest priority on a list on mental health topics they wanted to learn more about. (Stress management was at the top, which we focused on in the 2018-19 school year.)
How partners are helping
Student well-being is a responsibility we share with families and partners. As parents or guardians, you can talk to your children and teens about the importance of sleep and making it a priority.
We’re also working with the Fraser Health Authority, to help give children the tools they need to support their own mental health. We’ve partnered with them in a number of schools where we supported families with how to help their children develop good sleep practices. Parents told us they made changes to their children’s sleep routines, and as a result, saw a difference in how rested their children were. Schools reported the students were more involved and engaged in their classes.
Read “Sleep hygiene to be taught in Burnaby Schools this year” in the Burnaby Now
Listen to the Burnaby Schools interview about sleep on CBC Radio’s BC Today (begins 30 minutes into the program)
Listen to “Teaching students sleep hygiene in Burnaby Schools” on CBC Radio’s Daybreak North (begins 1 hour and 21 minutes into the program)
Posted October 2019