The Importance of Sleep!

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To kick off the after-school enrichment sessions, we designed a lesson on the importance of sleep to support the school's efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism and truancy. These challenges are especially common in underserved communities, where many students face barriers such as parents working multiple jobs or night shifts, morning responsibilities, caring for younger siblings, and widespread late-night screen use, all of which make consistent sleep schedules difficult. We addressed attendance through science education by teaching students the biology of sleep and how it affects focus, mood, and learning. Students then created personalized bedtime schedules they could realistically follow and refer to each night, empowering them to take ownership of healthier sleep habits within the context of their daily lives.