1. Adolescents and Sleep
100 Ideas for a Good Nights Sleep
Submitted by Team Thinking Lab

2. The Lost Hour of Sleep
“Around the world, children get an hour less sleep than they did thirty
years ago. The cost: IQ points, emotional well-being, ADHD, and obesity.”
Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman,
Nurtureshock

3. School policies
1. Offer a nap break at 3 PM every day
2. Provide sleep chairs or sleep pods at school for napping
3. Change the start of school to 9 AM so students can sleep in
4. Assign fewer than 2.5 hours of homework to students
5. Allow student to set their own hours – they can go to bed at 3 AM and start their day at
noon
6. Pay money to kids based on the number of hours they sleep -50c per hour
7. Allow kids to take a “Sleep day” similar to a sick day or a vacation day but they take it
when they haven’t slept well the night before.
8. Give everyone a one-week “Sleep holiday” so they can take time off and get as much
sleep as they need, to catch up on their sleep deficit and re-set their body clocks
9. Have the Sleep Holiday twice a year – at the end of winter and in Springtime
10. Extend the lunch hour to allow for nap time
11. Hire a sleep coach to work with students at school

4. Public Information and Education
1. Hold a contest and give prizes to the students who get 8 hours of sleep each night for a full week
2. Have a fun educational campaign about the importance of sleep
3. Educate parents with information about the importance of sleep
4. Develop a sleep game for kids to play that rewards them based on the number of sleep hours per night
they get
5. Promote a campaign in traditional and digital media about the importance of sleeping
6. Do a campaign about the sleep deficit to build awareness about the dangers of not enough sleep
7. Do a campaign to promote healthy eating at dinner
8. Get a pop star to do a hit tune promoting good sleep
9. Have a Pajama Fashion Show to promote sleep
10. Develop a campaign that says “sleep on it” to educate students
11. Target different social groups at school with targeted campaigns – science messages for the nerds,
fashion messages for the popular kids, sports messages for the jocks, etc.
12. Campaign of “slow is the way to grow” or “sleep is deep”
13. Teach Yoga techniques to promote sleep
14. Have a campaign “Do One Less Thing” to promote lowering stress
15. Educate people about the long-term problems that can result from lack of required hours of sleep
16. Promote a society that is less stressful and less competitive
17. Teach people that sleep deprivation causes diabetes and increases insulin resistance
18. Teach people that 1 hour less of sleep increases the chance of Heart Disease by 33 %
19. Promote the message that you learn more through a good night of sleep than you do by studying all
night long

5. Exercise and Activity
1. Limit the number of hours for sports practice/activities
2. Increase the amount of physical activity required during the day at school
3. Less sitting
4. Have a Pilates program in school in order to help students manage their stress and
anxiety
5. Tiring activity before bed time
6. Hot bath required before bed time
7. Take a walk before bed time to promote sleep
8. Take a sauna or a hot tub to help you relax before bed

6. Personal and Family Habits
1. Change eating times
2. Avoid smoking before bed
3. Avoid alcohol before bed
4. Avoid fast food before bed
5. Hot milk before bed
6. Read a good book while trying to sleep
7. More free time for the family -- to do sports or what ever makes you tired
8. Organize life on a notebook in order to avoid stress
9. Avoid chocolate and candies before bed
10. Have parents teach children good sleep habits from a young age
11. Establish a fixed time for sleeping
12. Develop a sleep schedule that structures at least 6 hours and gives 8 hours of sleep to
children
13. Never deny sleep time as a punishment for bad behavior
14. Never prioritize homework over sleep
15. Avoid heavy meals after 6 PM
16. Go to bed only when sleepy
17. Make a practice of going to sleep when you first feel tired instead of pushing through and
staying up until you are over tired and can’t fall asleep
18. Rub lotion on your body before bedtime to help you relax your muscles and moistrurize
your skin for more comfortable sleep

7. Meditation and Relaxation
1. Teach meditation and relaxation techniques
2. Body massage before sleeping for everyone!
3. Use Yoga techniques to promote sleep
4. Practice Stress Reduction techniques
5. Warn hands and fee before going to bed
6. Do facial relaxation exercise to help you sleep
7. Practice counting breaths as a way to relax
8. Program your mind for sleep by saying, “Tonight I will get a good night’s
sleep”
9. Relax/unclench hands while trying to sleep
10. If thoughts from the day crowd in on you gently push them away and focus on
breathing
11. Use a guided meditation to help you wind down and get to sleep

8. Technology
1. Shut off the Internet and Cable TV at 10 PM worldwide
2. Put sensors in the bed to track how much sleep a person gets
and report back to the sleeper on how they are doing
3. Regulate Internet activity after 10 PM
4. Regulate usage of mobile devices after 10 PM
5. Watch a boring documentary before bedtime
6. Use a white noise machine to help sleep

9. Environmental Controls
1. Avoid radiators with high temperature in the bedroom
2. Quiet environment in the bedroom
3. Listen to relaxing music on the nights prior to stressful days
4. Use a soothing smell in the bedroom
5. Lavender relaxation candles
6. Leave a note pad and pencil by the bed to capture ideas from when you’re falling asleep
or dreaming
7. Put a hot water bottle in the bed to make it cozy
8. Limit visual and auditory stimuli before bedtime
9. Use the bedroom only for sleeping and not for work or studying
10. No TV in the bedroom
11. No windows in bedroom (as in traditional Chinese homes) to keep things dark and quiet
12. Sleep with a stuffed bear that mimics the human heartbeat to help you relax
13. When you have to wake up early and you’re worried you’ll oversleep, set two alarms to
make sure you will hear them and to help you relax enough to get the sleep you need.

10. Medical
1. Get evaluated for a sleep disorder to make sure there is not some
physiological reason why your sleep may be disrupted
2. Take ambien to help you get to sleep
3. Develop an Insta-sleep patch

11. New Product Development
1. Develop a “sleep kit” with soft pajamas, ear plugs, eye shades, lovely sheets and a soft
pillow and sell the package as part of a sleep promotion campaign.
2. Develop a Sleep App that would provide soothing music, guided meditations and a tool to
monitor movements in the bed to make sure sleep is happening
3. Develop a “room temperature app” that would monitor body temperature and adjust the
room temperature accordingly
4. Develop an app that can connect your smartphone to an electric blanket and have it
automatically sense and adjust the bed temperature through the night for optimal sleep
5. Develop technology to change the wall color/pattern, window coverings and ambience of
the bedroom so it is optimal for sleep depending on the season or one’s moods
6. Develop a “monster” app to get rid of monsters that may be lurking under the bed,
interfering with a good nights’ sleep
7. Develop “split sheets” so that if two people are sleeping in the same bed they can each

12. New Product Development (continued)
1. iPhone app to regulate noise and temperature
2. Insta-Sleep Patch
3. “Yawn – inducing device” that will make people yawn and get sleepy
4. Dial a story (bedtime story)
5. Technology that recreates the sensation of moving on an airplane to induce sleep
6. Alarm clock that increases light slowly to gently wake you up
7. Have “Sleep bars” like “Oxygen bars” where you can go and get a nap
8. Develop a “Sleep Resort” where people can take their 1-week “Sleep Holiday” they can
get as much sleep as they need - very calming, beautiful spa like places where the
rooms are insulated from noise, the sheets are gorgeous, the room smells good, there's
a spa tub and they give you a massage every night. Everyone gets a fluffy bathroom and
slippers
9. Develop a Facebook app to monitor sleep schedules

13. Team Thinking Lab
Hubert Cosico – Bordeaux, France
Ines Amaral – Coimbra, Portugal
Victor Antofica – London, United Kingdom
Rob Pollak – New York, USA
Betsy Bayha – San Francisco, USA