10 Tips To Stop Sleep Problems From Causing A Drop In School Grades - By: Don Saunders

It has been felt for some time now that too little or poor quality sleep in teens leads to poor performance at school, but it was not until recently that a research study confirmed that teenagers with poor sleeping habits do in fact suffer from lower grades.

Here are 10 tips to ensure that a healthy child enjoys the level of sleep needed to do well in school.*� Despite the fact that teenagers will sometimes spend a great deal of time in their bedroom and turn it into much more of a 'living' than a 'sleeping' room, avoid using the bed for anything other than sleeping. Do not sit in bed, writing, watching TV, playing games, reading or anything else but keep it only for sleeping so that your body associates climbing into bed with going to sleep.*� Steer clear of any form of drink that contains caffeine after about 3 o�clock in the afternoon. This naturally means coffee and tea, but also extends to colas and chocolate drinks.*� Avoid the temptation to stay up late finishing your homework or studying for a test. Despite the fact that this might seem like the answer to a specific problem in the short term, and may well keep you out of trouble for handing your homework in late or see you through a test, in the long run your overall performance will fall and any short term benefits will quickly disappear.*� Do not be tempted to take a nap after school. If you do find that you are so tired that you cannot keep your eyes open then take a nap but for no more than 45 minutes or an hour.*� If you find that you cannot get to sleep within about 20 minutes of climbing into bed then do not merely lie in bed trying to get to sleep, as the harder you try the more difficult it will get. As an alternative, get up and do something such as reading a book or listening to some relaxing music. As soon as you begin to feel tired, get back into bed and you will be asleep in next to no time.*� Do not take any strenuous exercise within several hours of bedtime. If you wish to play baseball or engage in other sports or strenuous activities then do these shortly after finishing school and not an hour or two before going to bed.*� Make sure that you get up at the same time in the morning, whether or not it is a school day. Teenagers normally have a lie-in at the weekends and during the school holidays and, rather than helping to make you feel better, this simply disrupts your pattern of sleep.*� Set a regular time to go to bed and try not to vary this by more than a matter of a few minutes from one day to the next.*� When it comes to bedtime ensure that your bedroom is dark, quiet and cool. Do not close your bedroom up, turn up the heat and get into bed to watch TV. Rather, turn the heating down, open the window a bit if you can to let in some fresh air and make the room as dark as you can get it.*� Do not eat a heavy meal close to going to bed. You clearly do not want to go to bed feeling hungry and eating a light snack prior to bedtime is fine, but going to bed on a full stomach can make it difficult to get to sleep and affect your quality of sleep.

Follow these 10 tips and within next to no time the quality of your sleep will improve, you will feel much more awake and active during the day and your school grades will improve.

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Help-Me-To-Sleep.com looks at various sleep disorders and covers everything from finding a natural cure for insomnia to the use of daily meditation

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