Wellness Report
SleepHow many hours do you sleep each night?
How do you feel when you’ve had a really good sleep? How do you feel when you don’t sleep well?
You probably already know that sleep is super important. It’s when our bodies and brains have time to rest, repair, and improve. If you don’t get enough good sleep, you will feel tired, your focus and memory will be worse, and your body won’t have a chance to heal itself properly.
Think of it like a bedroom. When we sleep, the room is getting cleaned, and all of the new things you brought into the room get put away so that they are easier to find later. If you don’t get enough sleep, the room will be really messy, and it will be harder to find things, you may feel more stressed out, and it gets easier for something to break.
How much sleep do kids in
Kelowna get?
Elementary school kids sleep an average of 9.2 hours per night on weekdays.
Middle school students get an average of 8.8 hours of sleep each night on weekdays.
On the weekend, Kelowna kids get a bit more sleep, with both elementary and middle schoolers averaging 9.8 hours per night.
How much sleep are you supposed to get each night?
Everyone’s body and brain are different, and some people will need more sleep than others. It’s important to think about how you feel when you get more or less sleep to know what good sleep looks like for you.
In Canada, it’s recommended that kids aged 5–13 years old get 9–11 hours of sleep every night (weekdays AND weekends). For 14–17 year-olds, the guidelines recommend 8–10 hours of sleep per night.
What does all this mean?
Across Canada, 1 in 4 kids isn’t getting enough sleep, and Kelowna is no different.
In Kelowna, 40% of elementary school students had less than the recommended 9 hours of sleep on weekdays. On weekends, 25% of kids still had less than 9 hours of sleep.
Kelowna’s middle schoolers do a little bit better. Only 14% of this age group gets less than 8 hours of sleep during the weekdays. On weekends, only 3.5% of middle school students get less than the recommended 8 hours of sleep.
Advice
What can you do to get more good sleep?
Stick to a sleep schedule
Max out your room for sleep
Use curtains, blinds, or even a blanket or towel to block light from windows and cover lights from electronics or unplug them. Close the vent in your room or ask your parents if you can lower the temperature on the thermostat. It can be hard to control the noises around you when you’re sleeping — do what you can and then consider playing white/brown noise sounds our soothing music to help block out some of the noises you can’t control.
Make your bedtime routine awesome
Do something special that you ONLY do at bedtime that makes getting ready for bed something to look forward to. It could be writing in a journal, listening to your favourite “guilty pleasure” song while you brush your teeth, reading, daydreaming, or even meditating. Maybe it’s just looking at yourself in the mirror and thinking about three things you like about yourself and something you are grateful for that day.
Give screens and devices a swerve
It’s tough to avoid devices — We totally get it! But it’s really important to give your brain a break from screens for at least 30 minutes before bed.
TVs, phones, and computers give off a kind of light that reminds our brains of the sun. When we’re looking at screens, our brains can’t get ready for sleep because they’re tricked into thinking it’s daytime. Using devices right before bed can make it hard to fall and stay asleep, so take a break and do something you like away from the screen, even if it’s just listening to music or a podcast.