Today is rung 3 of 5 on this topic
Sleep, stress and actually functioning
Can do: Protects sleep, recognises stress signals, and has a strategy that isn't avoidance.
Why it matters
Adolescent sleep shifts biologically and school start times don't. Sleep debt looks exactly like laziness and is often diagnosed as it.
What it looks like when it's wobbly
Phone in bed until 1 a.m., exhausted all day, and the resulting drop in performance blamed on effort.
⏱️ Two-minute check
"What time did you actually fall asleep this week? What do you do when you feel overwhelmed?"
Solid looks like: 8–10 hours most nights, and a strategy that isn't only avoidance.
The full activity for this topic · 5 minutes daily for a week
One Week Sleep Log
- 1Record time to bed, estimated time asleep, wake time, and mood next day.
- 2After a week, look for the pattern themselves. Their own data beats your argument.
- 3Agree one change: phone charging outside the bedroom is the highest-impact one.
- 4Add a wind-down routine that starts 30 minutes before sleep.
- 5Log another week and compare mood and focus.
If it's too hard
Track bedtime only, for five days.
If it's too easy
Add a stress log and identify which specific triggers recur.
Say this
"Look at your own numbers. What does your data say about the days after a late night?"