Sleep Habits: Getting a Good Night's Sleep

What Students Will Learn
Objective 1 – Students will explain the four stages of sleep and the characteristics of each stage.
Objective 2 – Students will identify activities, beverages, and foods that may help or hurt the ability to get enough sleep.
Objective 3 – Students will identify the healthy number of sleep hours sleep they need and the actions that could help them get a good night’s sleep. •
Objective 4 – Students will write a personal health goal based on what they have learned about the benefits of getting a good night’s sleep. 

How They Will Learn the Objectives - Learning Activities
1)	The teacher introduces the lesson by having the students share how many hours of sleep they get each night. After sharing their sleep hours, the teacher will ask the students to vote to identify the number of sleep hours recommended by health professionals for their age range 1) 8-9 hours; 2) 9 – 10 hours; or 3) 10 – 11 hours.

2)	After the students vote, the teacher explains why students their age need 10 – 11 hours of sleep each day. Younger people need more sleep to promote healthy physical and mental growth and development. 

3)	Next, the teacher asks students, “If getting enough sleep is important to physical and mental health and well-being, what happens when we sleep?” After a brief discussion, the teacher introduces the article, “What’s the Deal With Sleep,” as an explanation of the four stages of sleep. 

4)	The teacher reads the article as students follow along on the digital copy shared online. After reading, the teacher reviews the four stages of sleep and the characteristics of each. During the review, the teacher instructs the students to write down notes for each sleep stage. 

5)	After reading and discussing the article, the teacher provides four different sleep scenarios for students to identify as either stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, or REM in the sleep cycle. 

6)	Reflecting back to the section in the article about dreams, the teacher asks, “What is one reason scientists think we dream?” The teacher then provides the students with four statements about dreams for the students to identify as true or false. 

7)	The teacher asks the students, “What makes it hard for some people to get enough sleep?”
After discussing, the teacher guides the students in brainstorming ‘things that prevent sleep’ and ‘things that promote sleep.’

8)	Next, the teacher shares information on how ‘screen time’ and ‘caffeine’ can steal away sleep time and how we can take that time back. 

9)	After discussing how ‘screen time’ and ‘caffeine’ can hinder sleep, have students work through the How Much Caffeine activity to calculate how much caffeine is found in 12 popular beverages. https://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database

10)	After calculating the amounts of caffeine per ounce in each of the 12 popular beverages, the teacher leads the students in listing actions that promote a good night’s sleep. Some ideas to include would be to 
•	avoid beverages with caffeine, 
•	avoid chocolate at night, 
•	avoid sugar at night, 
•	read to get sleepy, 
•	do calm activities after dinner (wind down), s
•	stick to consistent bed time, 
•	develop a routine (shower, brush teeth, read, etc.), 
•	start homework right after school, 
•	eat dinner earlier, 
•	look at after-school schedules to do active demanding activities early, well before bedtime, and
•	think about something fun/positive when you’re in bed.

Background Knowledge Needed
•	Students need to have good listening and participation skills.

No homework required.

Learner Evaluation
Students will write a health goal based on the information they learned in this presentation.