Sleep Well Scotland

Helping Children, Families and Schools Sleep Better

We know that poor sleep affects children’s physical health, mental wellbeing, behaviour, and performance at school — yet sleep is rarely talked about in classrooms, amongst families, or in education policy. Sleep Well Scotland is a national programme working to change this through education: helping children and young people get the sleep they need to be healthy, happy, and ready to learn.

Programme Blueprint

Sleep isn’t just about bedtime routines — it’s about education, support, and policy working together so every child has the chance to thrive. As such, Sleep Well Scotland takes a whole-systems approach, collaborating with researchers, local communities, and policy-makers to
(1) raise awareness of the importance of sleep to a child’s physical health, mental wellbeing, and performance at school, and (2) provide evidence-based support to effectively improve sleep.

Dive in Further…

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Collaborative Design

The entirety of the Sleep Well Scotland project adopted collaborative design principles to ensure the programme was age-appropriate, feasible, and was aligned with the needs of children, families, and educators.

The design team involved collaborators with a broad range of life and work experience including:

Sleep researchers
Parents
Teachers
Students aged 12-13 years
Paediatric clinicians
Public health consultants
Education specialists
Sleep Charity Representatives

Component A: School-Based Sleep Education Programmes

Component A focused on providing a well-rounded sleep education programme in school communities, strengthening understanding of how sleep relates to child wellbeing and learning.

Component A1 – In-School Sessions

Pupils from Primary 5 to Primary 7 (aged approximately 9-12 years) partook in a three-week sleep education programme within their normal school timetable. The programme consisted of three classroom sessions grounded in modern sleep science and behavioural change principles:

Session 1: Why Sleep Matters introduced pupils to sleep as a biological process essential for brain development, physical health, learning, and emotional regulation. The session included interactive activities, including sleep-deprivation simulations and hands-on brain demonstrations, to make the cognitive and behavioural effects of poor sleep visible and memorable.
Session 2: Improving My Sleep focused on translating knowledge into practice. Pupils explored how bedroom environments and evening behaviours influence sleep through a series of interactive learning stations addressing light, sound, comfort and temperature, calming routines, and lifestyle factors such as caffeine, sugar, and screen use.
Session 3: Sharing the Message empowered pupils to become advocates for sleep health within their school communities. Working collaboratively, pupils designed and developed school-wide sleep health campaigns.

Alongside the classroom sessions, students could optionally partake in at-home data collection activities, such as a sleep diary, to further sleep research.

Component A2 – Parent and Caregiver Sleep Education Sessions

Following completion of the in-school sessions for students, parents were invited to optional drop-in sessions to support healthy sleep routines within the home environment. These sessions sought to:

Strengthen understanding of sleep as a foundational determinant of children’s physical health, emotional wellbeing, and learning;
Provide practical, research-backed strategies that families could adapt in their own households;
Reduce guilt and blame commonly associated with sleep difficulties through a compassionate, non-judgemental approach; and
Align home routines with the teaching delivered during the in-school sessions

Additionally, families were given the option to book one-to-one sessions with the programme lead for more individualised support.

Component A3 – Educator Training

Continuing professional development (CPD) training was also delivered to teachers to strengthen understanding of sleep science and how to recognise how sleep disruption may present in school and how to address it.

Component B: Sleep Health Conference for Junior Researchers

Component B consisted of a one-day Sleep Health Conference for Junior Researchers held the Dundee Science centre, providing an immersive and engaging experience to complement the sleep education sessions held previously.

Four Primary 6 and Primary 7 classes from Dundee city, Fife, and Perth and Kinross attended the conference and partook in three workshops led by a combination of sleep researchers, medical students, and Sleep Action representatives.

Importantly, Component B also served as an outreach element of the Sleep Well Scotland programme, reaching students from communities with fewer academic enrichment opportunities. In this manner, it sought to make sleep science more accessible and inclusive for all.

Component C: Policy Forum and Curriculum Change

Component C focused on translating research to public policy – advocating for curriculum-level change to ensure the learning from this programme inform national systems. Working in close partnership with Sleep Action, this component supported the development and dissemination of a national sleep manifesto, initiated structured engagement with Education Scotland on potential curriculum integration, and increased parliamentary visibility of sleep as an education and public health priority

Project Impact

Across 5 primary schools in Fife, Dundee, and Perth & Kinross, Sleep Well Scotland reached:

Students

Parents & Caregivers

Teachers

Sleep Health Conference for Juniors

Component B brought together 126 pupils from schools in more deprived areas to the Dundee Science Centre. Children worked with researchers and health professionals, explored the science of sleep, and were celebrated as “junior researchers”, helping to build confidence and aspiration around science and health.

Students from Ceres Primary School design a sleep mind-map in one of the conference workshops (left);
Students partake in a workshop led by Sleep Action (right).
[Credit: Dr. Emma Louise Gale & Sleep Action]

National Visibility

The project also received national attention through collaborating with Sleep Action to organise an event at the Scottish Parliament. The event, which focused on advancing the Sleep Manifesto received cross-sector support and bolstered recognition of sleep as a core pillar of health.

Sleep Action Policy Event
[Credit: Sleep Action]