HM Compact: Understanding the link between sleep and mental fitness
Students discover what actually happens in the brain during sleep — including memory consolidation, emotional processing and physical restoration — and explore the research linking quality sleep to mental fitness, mood, concentration and resilience. They build awareness of how their own sleep may be affecting how they feel.
Learning Outcomes
Outcome 1:
Understand what is happening in the brain when we are asleep
Outcome 2:
Understand the link between sleep and mental fitness
What's included
A quick look at the classroom-ready resources that come with this lesson.
Contributing Experts
People who helped produce this lesson.
Dr John Coleman
Dr John Coleman, OBE, is a world-renowned psychologist and leading authority on adolescent development, distinguished by a career spanning clinical practice, academic research, and government advisory. A former Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, he has authored numerous definitive texts on the teenage brain and youth health. In recognition of his international impact and lifelong service to young people, he was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II.
Lucy Bailey
Lucy Bailey is Founder of Bounce Forward and Healthy Minds for Parents. With two decades of experience in mental resilience and emotional wellbeing, and training 1000s of teachers, parents and other adults around children and young people. Lucy is proud of her early career in youth work and children services. Lucy had a poor experience of school and that has driven her passion to influence UK policy to form a positive system of change with psychological fitness at the core. Lucy has directed national research projects (including the Healthy Minds five year study), is certified by University of Pennsylvania, has an MSc in Practice Based Research, a BSc in Social Policy and Criminology, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education. Her published book Raise Resilience: Teach your teenager well has led to the creation of the Psychological Fitness Nana bridging old school wisdom with modern psychology for parents of the 21st century.
About the Organisation
Bounce Forward is a registered charity on a mission to transform how we think about mental health, shifting the narrative from deficit and crisis to strength, prevention, and psychological fitness. They create evidence-based programmes, curricula, and training that give young people, school staff, and the adults around children the knowledge, language, and daily habits to build genuine mental resilience. From whole-staff training to five-year school curricula, everything they do is practical, grounded in science, and designed to make a lasting difference not just in the moment, but across a lifetime.