Physical Resilience: Sleep and the Adolescent Brain
This lesson explores why sleep is essential for adolescent mental and physical health. Students learn about the science of sleep — including the circadian rhythm, melatonin, Non-REM and REM sleep stages — and hear from both Harry Kane and Dr John Coleman (clinical psychologist and adolescence expert) on why sleep matters. The lesson culminates in students reflecting honestly on their own sleep routines and beginning a sleep diary.
Learning Outcomes
Outcome 1:
Understand the link between sleep and good mental health
Outcome 2:
Examine different types of sleep
Outcome 3:
Understand what is happening in the brain when we are asleep
What's included
A quick look at the classroom-ready resources that come with this lesson.
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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.
About the Organisation
Bounce Forward is the UK’s psychological-fitness charity.
We help children and young people — and the adults and environments around them — develop the understanding, skills and shared language to regulate, recover and adapt through challenge, change and everyday life.
Our work brings together mental resilience and emotional wellbeing, shifting the focus upstream: building capability before crisis, rather than waiting for something to go wrong. We translate evidence from psychology, resilience research, cognitive behavioural approaches and positive psychology into practical learning that can be taught, modelled and used in real life.
From evidence-informed curricula and staff development to family support and whole-community approaches, our work recognises that young people do not develop in isolation. What happens around a young person shapes what becomes possible within them.
Everything we create is practical, grounded in evidence and designed to build something that lasts — psychologically fit people and communities, better prepared to meet life.