Sleep Difficulties: First Steps

Lots of children and young people find getting to sleep, staying asleep or waking up a real problem.

Disrupted, broken or insufficient sleep can really impact on your mood and your ability to cope with daily life.

There are basic things you can and should try first to help get to sleep and stay asleep.

Avoid stimulants such as alcohol, caffeine, sugary drinks or foods. This includes avoiding technology like phones, tablets, TV etc. Giving up technology at night time is a tricky one for young people but it really is important to take screens out of the bedroom if a good night’s sleep is ever going to happen.

Doing some exercise or activity during the day. If you haven’t done a lot during the day, you probably won’t feel tired at night.

Make sure you’re as organised as you can be for the day ahead so that you are not worrying or thinking about what you have to do or what you might need.

Try not to nap during the day. Particularly true if you aren’t sleeping at night, don’t get in to the habit of catching up on sleep in the daytime.

Make sure you have something to eat for dinner, you will find it harder to sleep if you are hungry or thirsty.

Have a regular night time routine; do things roughly in the same order at the same time each night to get your body and mind ready for sleep.

Try to wake up at the same time, even on weekends.

Create a calming and peaceful environment. Rooms that are dark and cool are best for sleep. That includes getting rid of the light from technology screens.

Avoid using your bed for studying. Make your bed for sleeping only.

Sometimes it might be hard to get to sleep because you have lots of thoughts going around your head.

Have a read of our common problems pages on anxiety (worry) and depression (low mood) for ideas and strategies which might help you manage these thoughts .

What can I do next?

If you have consistently tried the first steps guide above and had little success, you might want to move on to our Next Steps Guide to sleep Difficulties.

If neither of our guides (tried consistently over a number of weeks) have helped, you might want to discuss your concern and get support from someone like a school nurse or your GP?

If you have and nothing you have tried has made a significant difference, it might be time to speak to someone about involving CAMHS.