Sleep is an important topic that is often left out of the school curriculum. This is unfortunate because sleep is often misunderstood or undervalued. Scientific research documents the critical role that sleep plays in all aspects of growth, learning and wellbeing. Encourage teachers to include sleep in their curriculum so that students can start to see why it is so important to their health, performance and quality of life. Here are some ideas you can provide to teachers:

Science

At any age level, the biology of sleep can be part of the science curriculum. There are many resources available for a teacher if sleep is not covered in the textbook. One of the best is the NIH Curriculum Supplement Series: Sleep, Sleep Disorders and Biological Rhythms (http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih3/sleep/default.htm), sample curriculum can be found in this toolkit. Students can investigate sleep as a science fair project.

Psychology

Sleep is an important aspect of the study of psychology. The NIH curriculum is also appropriate for this subject.

Health

Sleep is equally important to health as diet and exercise. Basic fact sheets on sleep and sleep hygiene can be incorporated into a curriculum on health (See the NSF toolkit or Web site for resources). Sleep disorders are an interesting topic to many students who may see their friends or family members or themselves in descriptions of snoring, sleepiness, or sleepwalking, for example.

English

Teachers can encourage sleep or school start times as a topic for a research paper or persuasive essay. Students can write poems about sleep, and keep a journal about their dreams or how their own sleep habits affect the way they function.

Math

Use sleep data for math problems (e.g. the sinusoidal airflow waveforms measured during a sleep study can be used to study curves and area under curves). Have high school math students tabulate the data for surveys conducted about sleep habits.

Social Studies, Geography

Students can explore or think creatively about the sleep patterns of children in other countries or cultures, how climate and changes in daylight can affect sleep, how work schedules can affect sleep and may also affect work performance and public safety.

In general

• Incorporate circadian timing systems into the study of the patterns of the solar system.
  
• Test reaction times and the effect of sleep on reaction time as a simple hypothesis test science project.
  
• Measure breathing frequency as an example of a physiological rhythm in the body.
  
• Major sleep topics can include: what is sleep?, sleep as a dynamic process, biological rhythms: circadian and homeostasis, sleep disorders, and sleep and driving.

The first step to improving teens’ sleep habits and helping them to get enough sleep is to get them to think about sleep. Sleep is a biological necessity, and teens need to take it seriously. The more they learn about it, the better off they are. So use these ideas, or any others, to start giving sleep the attention it deserves.