We are almost complete with our first week of the program. The children (and teachers!) have been closely monitoring their behaviours and choices that impact on a good quality night sleep.
One way of measuring how your sleep has been, is checking in with how you feel in the morning.
Do you bounce out of been feeling well rested? Or do you struggle and have to force yourself to move? Do you feel clear and as a response to this the morning flows…or do you feel heavy and foggy and feel like the morning is a struggle?
The questions that the journal asks each day gives the students an opportunity to get to know these things and as parents, it’s great to bring our children’s awareness to this too. If they’re finding it hard to get out of bed a good question to ask is – what happened yesterday that has contributed to feeling this way? (Great question to ask ourselves too!)
Some answers to this question could be –
Eating too much sugar or other unsupportive foods
Something left unresolved
Holding back from talking about a problem
Watching TV or looking at screens right before bed
Going to bed too late
Anxious or nervous about something
And the list goes on…
The reflection for the week is –
If I leave my bed a mess in the morning, I will get back into a mess in the evening.
As parents, I know you’ll all love this one! But rather than making their bed being a chore, they may start to see that even this simple daily act can affect how they are feeling each day because it is affecting their quality of sleep. Then making the bed is something they (may) begin to want to do because they know it’s part of supporting themselves. Even if they don’t follow through with the new behaviour, the fact that they are aware that it affects them is an amazing first step because you can never undo what you become aware of:) So, we will see what happens!
Sara Harris (First Aid & Well-being)