It was a pleasure to welcome Educational Speaker, Coach and Trainer, Emma Gleadhill on Wednesday, 13 October to speak to the St George’s community about the importance of developing healthy sleep patterns for our teenagers.
Emma’s online presentation was an informative but undoubtedly challenging listen. She presented the dangers of stealing from the ’sleep budget’ to our physical and mental wellbeing, illustrating the effects of sleep deprivation as being akin to ‘jetlag’ for our bodies and minds. She outlined a number of poor sleep hygiene habits that many fall into, as both adult and child and, with extensive scientific research to illustrate the detrimental effects of such loss, it was emphatically clear that ‘we need to take sleep very seriously.’
It was hugely helpful, then, to hear Emma’s invaluable advice on how to improve our teenagers’ (and our own!) sleep hygiene: from making the bedroom a sanctuary for rest to restricting caffeine to the morning, from reducing our children’s exposure to blue screens in the hour before bedtime to serotonin-producing dietary recommendations, from tactics to help our bodies get ready for sleep to strategies to process our teenagers’ anxiety and worry.
Emma helped us both to better understand the chemistry of sleep and how our bodies profit from healthy consistent patterns but she also armed us with strategies to enrichen the soil of sleep and combat negative habits effectively. It was a very valuable evening for those who were fortunate to be there and hopefully one which will positively impact our girls’ wellbeing significantly.
St George's families who wish to listen to Emma's presentation can email school for the link to the recording.