10 Tips To Prevent Sleep Problems
From Causing Falling School Grades

It's been believed for some time that poor quality or inadequate sleep in teenagers leads to poor performance at school but it was not until recently that this was confirmed by a formal research study, indicating that teenage children with poor sleeping habits do indeed demonstrate lower grade point averages.

Here are 10 tips to ensure that otherwise healthy children get the sleep needed to perform well at school:

• 1. Set a time for going to bed and don't vary this time by more than a few minutes from day to day.



• 2. Ensure that you get up at the same time each morning, whether it is a school day or free day. Teenagers often have a lie-in at weekends and during the school holidays and, instead of helping you to feel better, this merely disrupts your sleep pattern.



• 3. If you cannot fall asleep within about 20 minutes of getting into bed then don't simply lie in bed trying to sleep, as the harder you try the more difficult it will be. Instead, get up again and do something like reading a book (other than a school book) or listening to relaxing music. When you start to feel tired, get back into bed and you'll be asleep in no time at all.



• 4. Avoid the temptation to stay up late studying for a test or doing your homework. Despite the fact that this may seem to be the answer to a specific problem in the short term, and may keep you out of trouble for not handing in your homework on time or get you through a test, in the long term your performance will suffer and you will soon lose any short term gain.



• 5. Don't be tempted to take a nap in the afternoon after school. If you find that you are so tired you cannot keep your eyes open then take a nap, but strictly limit it to no more than an hour.



• 6. Do not drink anything that contains caffeine after about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. This means coffee and tea, but also includes a range of colas and chocolate drinks.



• 7. Do not eat a heavy meal too close to bedtime. You should not go to bed feeling hungry and a light snack before bedtime is fine, but climbing into bed with a full stomach will make it difficult to get to sleep and affect your quality of sleep.



• 8. Teenagers will often spend a considerable amount of time in their bedroom and turn it into more of a 'living' than a 'sleeping' space. You must however avoid using the bed for anything other than sleeping. Do not sit in bed watching television, reading, writing or playing card or other games but reserve it only for sleeping so that your body will associate climbing into bed with going to sleep.



• 9. Avoid vigorous exercise within several hours of going to bed. If you want to engage in sporting or vigorous activities then do these after school and not an hour or two before going to bed.



• 10. At bedtime make sure that your bedroom is dark, cool and quiet. Do not close up the room, turn up the heat and climb into bed to watch television. Instead, turn down the heating, open the window a little to let in some fresh air and make the room as dark as possible.

If you follow these 10 sleep tips then your quality of sleep will improve, you will feel more awake and energetic during the day and your grades point average will improve.