Academic Counsellor News

Sleep

The school holidays seem like they were a long time ago now; during the holidays many of us like to stay up later and sleep in later the next day.  Now we are back into the full swing of Term 3, it is important to remember how vital sleep is to our well-being and our chance of success at school.

Sleep research has shown that 12-17 year olds need between 8-10 hours sleep a night.  Sometimes we think that we are getting enough sleep but while we might be spending 10 hours in our beds our actual sleep time might be much lower.

Michael Gradisar is a sleep expert from the Flinders University. Here are his quick tips for improving your sleep. 

• At least an hour before bed, turn off video games, YouTube and social media. Try a movie, book or watch TV instead.
• Lower the brightness on your phone and computer screens at night. Apple’s Night Shift is one way to do this.
• If you find it hard to wind down, try a mindfulness exercise like one from the Smiling Mind app.
• Try to sleep the same amount every night. An extra hour, every now and then, is fine – but any more can confuse your body clock. Falling asleep one hour earlier is better than sleeping in one hour later.
• If you need to get up during the night try to avoid turning on bright lights and hop back into bed quickly.
• Avoid caffeine at least six hours before you go to bed.
• If you can, avoid napping during the day.