What is sleep, and why do we need it?

I love this question, because kids and young people often ask me, why do we have to sleep?

So sleep is really important because when we're sleeping, our body's healing, our immune system is replenishing, we're digesting food, our muscles are relaxing, our brain is also working out what we've been doing during the day, and that often comes about in dreams.

How important is sleep for children?

Sleep is so important for children, because there's a lot of things your body needs to do during the day, one of the most important things is being at school, and being at school takes a lot of brain energy, you've got to get to school really early in the morning, you've got to make sure you've had breakfast, you've got to work in class, and then there's playtime, and then there's eating, and then there's talking to your friends, and then there's making sure that you answer questions in class, and so all those body functions require you to be really rested.

So sleep is really important for children because it prepares you for the day ahead.

How much sleep should kids get?

I would say that children from about six to 12 years old should get about nine to 12 hours.

That's really important, nine to 12 hours of good quality sleep.

What happens to people when they sleep?

So great question.

There are quite a few stages of sleep.

But important to know is that there's light sleep, so just as you're going to sleep, someone could tap you on the shoulder and you'll wake up.

And then there's a deeper sleep where our eyes are actually moving really rapidly under our closed eyelids, and that's called REM sleep, rapid eye movement sleep.

And in that sleep we're dreaming.

And then as we come out of that, it becomes lighter sleep again, and that's when we either wake up by ourselves and enjoy the day, or someone can wake us up in the morning and we wake up and we feel really replenished.

What should we avoid doing before bedtime to help us sleep?

No electronics, exercise is amazing, but not before bed, large meal, not before bed, a heavy drink, not before bed, having a bedtime routine is amazing, like a warm bath, shower, a light book, and maybe you can just talk to your parent before you go to sleep.

Those are my top tips.