Tips for helping children and young people get a better night’s sleep

As discussed in a recent article, good quality sleep is a crucial factor in the mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of children and young people. Before taking action, it’s important to try and identify what is causing the problem which could be due a range of issues, including anxiety, stress, life changes, intrusive thoughts or neurodivergence.

When counselling children who are experiencing difficulties with sleep, this is the first step that we work on together. Once we have explored some of the reasons why the young person is finding it hard to sleep, we look at strategies and actions that the young person can take, maybe with the support of parents and carers, to build new habits and tackle the reasons for poor sleep.

There are many different things that the young person can try, depending on why they have problems sleeping – here are just five of those strategies.

Five tips for a better night’s sleep

  1. Importance of routines -If a young person is struggling to get to sleep, one of the first things to do is ensure that they have a good night time routine. They should aim to go to bed at roughly the same time every night and wake up at the same time every day to help establish regular patterns. This should involve a wind down time of at least 30 minutes to an hour before going to bed.
  2. Create the right environment- Keeping the lights low, playing soft music and making the environment calm and comforting can all help aid sleep. Temperature is important too; because our core body temperature cools and our skin temperature rises during sleep, it’s better to keep the room cooler at night.
  3. Make melatonin – To encourage melatonin production (our sleep hormone) and give the mind a chance to calm and reset, it’s advisable to avoid all screens for an hour before lights out. This can be a hard one to enforce for teenagers, but scrolling on social media and messaging stimulates the brain when we are actually trying to get it to slow down and relax.
  4. Calming a busy brain – If a young person tends to have intrusive thoughts or anxiety at bed time, it might help for them to have a notebook by the bed and write these down as a way of externalising the thoughts to prevent them escalating. It can also help to make lists for the next day to prevent overwhelm or the young person mentally scrolling through all the things they need to do in the morning.
  5. Relax – different breathing techniques such as four square breathing can help the mind and body relax; it’s also great for reducing anxiety. Other strategies include body scanning, listening to podcasts or story tapes and meditation apps.

Reduce the pressure around sleeping

If a young person is struggling with sleep, the most important thing for them (and their parents) to try and relax around it. If they become stressed or anxious about sleep, the problem is likely to escalate. Remember, if a young person is in bed, they are still resting and that still has worth.

Seeking help for sleep problems

There are also lots of useful resources online that can help with suggestions around tackling sleep issues. The following websites all offer information that the child or parent may find helpful:

The Teen Sleep Hub

The NHS

The Sleep Charity

Counselling can help with sleep issues

Still having problems with sleep? Counselling can often help as there are often issues going on in the background such as anxiety or recurring intrusive thoughts. Tackling sleep problems often requires a holistic approach. The first step is to identity what is causing the problem and then work on strategies and targets to help the young person get a better night’s sleep.

Helen Campbell of Harborough Young People’s Counselling offers a free 20-minute consultation via Archway Health and Wellbeing with no obligation. Call 01858 410 820 or email admin@archwayhealth.co.uk to make an appointment.