Lesson video

Hello there everybody my name is Ms. Shaw and I'm delighted that you're joining me again for the second lesson in this unit.

So in today's lesson, we're going to focus on looking at some subtle or easily hidden signs of mental wellbeing concerns that we might demonstrate in our day-to-day lives.

Firstly we'll look at how anxiety or overwhelming feelings can impact on our mental health and wellbeing.

And also then look at the importance of sleep and how sleep having too little or too much of it can also go on to cause issues for us.

So in this lesson, you are going to need an exercise book and some paper.

You're going to need a pen and again you're going to need your brains because we're going to be doing a lot of learning.

Now hopefully you should have already completed your intro quiz.

We're then going to focus on looking at some overwhelming feelings that we might experience from now and again.

We're then going to look at the importance of sleep and how having too much or too little can impact on our daily routines.

And we're then going to focus on how we can manage some of these overwhelming feelings.

Finally, we'll cover some key learning points and you will complete your exit quiz.

So some of the key words that we'll be focusing on and using in this lesson are things like overwhelming feelings.

Now these are feelings which are very intense and very hard to deal with.

We are then going to be looking at insomnia which is the difficulty of falling asleep or staying asleep.

And we're going to be looking at how routines or actions that we practise regularly and should be established in order to improve our sleep habits.

So last lesson I asked you to focus on what you thought mental health was.

Just going to give you a few seconds to try and remember what we meant in terms of mental health.

Now I'm hoping that you could remember that mental health is all about our emotions, the thoughts and the feelings that we have and that looking after our mental health is just as important as looking after our physical health.

But what happens if those feelings become overwhelming and we find that really hard to deal with.

How do you know if you are overwhelmed? What sort of things might you be feeling, going to let you think for a few seconds.

Now something overwhelming is like her said, something really hard to deal with and it might make people feel more worried or stressed out.

And it's really hard to overcome those overwhelming feelings, especially if you are feeling overwhelmed with feelings of sadness or that might make you want to cry but you might also have an overwhelming feeling of joy and that might make you want to laugh.

So it's important to think about if we were having these intense, overwhelming feelings what might some of the ways in which we could deal with them be? Last lesson I asked you to identify some coping strategies for your stress container.

Can you remember any of them? What I'd like you to do is just to pause this video to complete this task and then resume again when you're finished.

Now I'm hoping that you identified some of your coping strategies as things like going out with your friends, having a singing song.

Being mindful of your environment, basically engaging in anything that makes you feel good about yourself and your emotional health and wellbeing.

But it's also too important and important to think about if we were spending a lot of time exercising or going out and doing a lot of things, why sleep might be important to our mental health.

Sleep is a really important part of our mental and physical health because it allows our mind and body to rest and recover.

And if we weren't getting that rest and recovery time, it might impact on our mental health.

Can you think of any positives to having a good night's sleep? I'm hoping that you were thinking of things like you're more energetic and able to get up in the morning.

You are then able to go into school and you're then able to think about answering questions that the teacher might put to you.

You're going to be more positive in your environment, you're going to be wanting to be happier and healthier and spend more time doing things that are fun.

Think about if you haven't had a good night's sleep, how that might impact on your day-to-day life.

So what is insomnia? Now we said earlier on in the keyword slide that insomnia is basically difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep.

Now we know that sleep is the time when our body and mind repair and restore ourselves.

So having something like insomnia impacting on our lives is going to be really quite a bad thing, negative.

Insomnia can affects our mental health in a number of ways.

Having poor sleep can make it much more difficult to deal with even things that would normally not stress you out at all, or make you more irritable and anxious.

On the flip side, having too much sleep might also affects our mental health in a number of ways.

Can you think of any ways? Now what I'd like you to do now is pause the video here and have a read through this slide.

And I'd like you to pick out the things that you think you should do in order to have a good night's sleep.

And think carefully about them while you're doing that.

Were you correct? Now, I'm hoping you picked out the same as me.

So for example, keeping your room tidy is a really good way of making sure that you keep your mind organised and there is actually a saying like a tidy house it is a tidy mind.

I've really needed to remind my own children about from time to time.

You should also make sure that your room is cool and dark and not too hot and not too cold, because that's going to wake you up throughout the night, which you don't want.

You should also make sure that your bed is really comfortable 'cause if it's too big or too hard or too small or too soft, again that's not going to be conducive to a good night's sleep.

Now I find that quite often when I'm trying to get to sleep, a cause of insomnia might be overthinking things that I've got to do for the next day.

So what I find is if I write to do list of things that I need to do and I check them off I think right, make sure the kids launches are make, sure I pack all my bags, etc.

Then it allows me to clear my mind so I can get to sleep more easily.

I then make sure they've maybe read a book or listen to some relaxing music, maybe have a bath and do something relaxing to help me chill out.

What I shouldn't be doing it's having vigorous exercise and waking myself up.

Now it's really good to have exercise throughout the day and get fresh air, but we need to be doing that regularly throughout the day, not just saving up just before bedtime when we're trying to get to sleep.

Now, I'm hoping that the things that you picked out from the previous slide that were things that really shouldn't be doing were things like having a cup of coffee, 'cause obviously caffeine or caffeine related drinks for example are going to stimulate your brain activity which we don't want to do.

Likewise, eating sugary snacks would have the same impact, so we don't want to do that either.

Now they did say that you shouldn't wear to go to bed on a full stomach either.

So having a big meal late at night isn't really a good idea.

Having something small just before you go to bed is going stop you feeling hungry, so you'll be a bit more satisfied and a bit more able to go to sleep, so that's fine but just make sure they're not sugary or full of caffeine.

It's also not a good idea to stay up really late.

Now, when you're going through puberty your body clock shifts and the rhythm goes from prior to puberty when you need to be starting to feel asleep at around about eight or nine o'clock.

So a couple of hours later, so you're not starting to feel tired so like 10 or 11.

Now, if you've got to then get thought really early for school in the morning, then you're going to feel like you've not had enough quality sleep.

And we have set that when you're going through puberty, your body is making a load of changes and you're growing and it needs that quality sleep to help you develop and grow.

So staying up really late is not a good idea.

Then you shouldn't be watching TV really late, you shouldn't be on your electronic devices really late.

Because again that's just going to stimulate brain activity, which we don't want.

So staying on your phone or looking at your tablet, watching TV, no, no, we need to try and avoid those things.

Now, what I'd like you to do for this activity is to think about this scenario.

So Zoya is a happy-go-lucky student who's moved over from Russia, she's really enjoying school, but she's not really that bothered about doing particularly well because what she actually dreams of being is a famous Russian gymnast.

So she has to get up really early before school, often skipping breakfast, but she wants to be so dedicated in doing well.

She stays late after school to focus on her gymnastics skills, but then because she's getting home late she's eating her evening meal late and she's finding it hard to wind down and relax.

She doesn't get much sleep and to top it off she's currently going through puberty as well.

To help her stay awake and focus in lessons at school, she's drinking quite a few energy drinks and eats a lot of sugary foods too.

So, what I would like you to do is pause the activity here to think about what Zoya could do to improve her daily routines to help get better sleep.

And I'd like you to suggest at least three helpful strategies.

So how did your left compare with mine? Well, I suggested that Zoya could reduce the amounts of energy drinks that she was consuming.

She could also try to cut down on the amount of training and exercise that she's doing.

So maybe if she's getting early one morning, then not staying so late at school that day or alternator it.

She could try to eat her evening meal earlier and make sure she's not having a big meal just before she goes to sleep.

She could engage in some activities which would help her wind down before bed time such as reading or having a nice relaxing bath.

She could also try to maintain a more regular routine and make sure that her room is in a condition that's conducive to getting a good night's sleep as well.

Now your final activity is for you to complete a peer advice sheet.

So what I would like you to do is think about all the top tips that we've covered in today's lesson and create an advice sheet for young people which highlight top tips for getting and maintaining a good night's sleep.

Slide to pause the video to complete your activity and then come back when you're finished.

So our key learning elements were to look at how poor sleep habits can affect our mental wellbeing.

How we can reduce our anxieties by sticking to a routine.

But that one many things that we can do to manage our overwhelming feelings, such as making sure we get a good night's sleep and making sure we refer back to some of our coping strategies from our stress container activity.

And I'm also hoping that you've remembered that talking to a trusted adult, so if those people who've got your back and you know you can turn to for help and support, that talking to them can really help and support you.

I'm really glad that you've stayed with me today for this lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed it and learned a lot.

Well done on completing this, the second lesson in this unit.

What I'd now like you to do is to complete the exit quiz to check your understanding of what we put in this lesson and to consolidate all of the learning.

And I look forward to seeing you again for the next lesson, bye for now.