Wake up and Learn - Rebuilding Healthy Sleep Habits for Students with Ms. Liz Williams

Good sleep isn’t just rest—it’s the foundation for learning, growth and success. In this episode, we sit down with Liz Williams, nurse at Ryan Gloyer Middle School and lead nurse for the district, to discuss the importance of establishing healthy sleep routines. 

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW

• Why it's important to establish a consistent sleep routine before the school year begins
• Advice for parents on how to help reset their child(s) sleep schedule
• Limiting screen time before bed
• Benefits of eating a nutritional breakfast
• How good sleep habits and strong school attendance contribute to student success.

Overview

SPECIAL GUEST
Ms. Liz Williams, Ryan Gloyer Middle School nurse and lead nurse for the district

 Liz Williams is a nurse at RGMS and the Department Head for district nurses, marking her 26th year of service. She is passionate about ensuring students’ medical needs are met during the school day, allowing them to fully participate in a quality education with minimal disruption. Ms. Williams believes in the remarkable resilience of students in the face of adversity and values the dedication of Seneca Valley’s staff in supporting students to remain engaged and successful. 

Transcript

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

00:00:02:26 - 00:00:10:20
Welcome to Voices, a national award-winning podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District. 

00:00:11:08 - 00:00:23:10
Jeff Krakoff: This is Jeff Krakoff. Today we're talking with Liz Williams, who is a nurse at Ryan Gloyer Middle School and also the department head for all the district's nurses. Welcome. Thanks for joining us today. 

00:00:23:12 - 00:00:24:24
Liz Williams: Thanks for having me, Jeff. 

00:00:24:26 - 00:00:49:02
Jeff Krakoff: So I want to talk about a topic near and dear to a lot of parents hearts. It's sleep right? A lot of kids hate sleep, but everybody knows how important it is. And, you know, as we're getting ready to start school again, I'm sure a lot of parents and kids and young adults probably change their sleep habits, right? When they're they're traveling on vacation. They don't have to get up as early for school. 

00:00:49:04 - 00:00:50:02
Liz Williams: Absolutely. 

00:00:50:04 - 00:01:14:22
Jeff Krakoff: So let's just talk about how students can build healthy sleep habits. And I'm also curious on your perspective, how that helps them to be more successful in school. So again, as we're winding down in the the summer months, why is it so important for students to worry about sleep and get into more of a consistent sleep routine? 

00:01:15:17 - 00:02:13:17
Liz Williams: Well, I mean, first of all, establishing a routine for children just helps them transition back to school. You know, it's it's a lot easier to transition back in, especially if you give it a little bit of a lead time, right? It takes about two weeks to form a habit. Now, we don't have two weeks before school starts, but there's no harm, you know, in starting, um, today, you know, keeping that same schedule. I often encourage people, they say, well, how am I supposed to get my child to bed sooner? I say, well, maybe just bump up 15 minutes. If you bump up 15 minutes every day, that's an hour in four days. Yeah. So you can easily move sometimes without even them knowing if they're young enough. Right. Um, you can move their bedtime up. And sleep is just really important. It's very important that we get enough sleep. If your kids are sleeping extra on the weekends, then they're likely not getting enough sleep during the week. 

00:02:14:05 - 00:02:43:13
Jeff Krakoff: Okay, you know, I think we've all been reading and hearing about sleep, how important it is for the mind and body from a student perspective of all ages K through grade 12. What are some of the things that you're seeing that you know? You can look at it as being sleep deprived. This is how it can hurt the student experience or being well rested, how that can help. What are some of the main things that that you think sleep really does for us? 

00:02:44:22 - 00:03:31:09
Liz Williams: Um, it really regenerates you. It gives you what you need to keep your bodies healthy. Um, honestly, you know, I, I equate sleep and breakfast kind of together, and I know that was something, you know, we wanted to discuss as well. Um, forming those routines, those habits. That includes a consistent bedtime. It includes a consistent wake up time, a consistent wake up way. In other words, you know, I'm not a fan of having cell phones in the bedroom, cell phones by the nightstand, that buzz and that light. Yeah, they really affect a child's sleep. And, you know, an alarm clock is very inexpensive. Personally, I put my alarm clock on the other side of the room, and it makes me get out of bed to turn it off. So that's kind of hard. 

00:03:31:11 - 00:03:33:19
Jeff Krakoff: Hit the snooze from ten feet away. Right. 

00:03:33:21 - 00:04:01:02
Liz Williams: Absolutely. Now, not to say don't jump back in sometimes, but for the most part it is, you know, a good way to do that. So, um, you know, again, a consistent wake up time, a consistent bedtime, a consistent time for breakfast, you know, really getting that. I find a lot of kids don't get enough sleep. They don't get breakfast before they come in. And then we have the expectation that they're going to be able to consume the information we're giving them, and they just don't have the tools to do that. 

00:04:01:04 - 00:04:20:26
Jeff Krakoff: Okay. We talked a little bit earlier about kind of a reset before school starts. You mentioned the great tip with do it gradually 15 minutes a day or some other increment. Do you have any other practical tips that students can use as they're thinking about getting their their students ready for school? 

00:04:21:03 - 00:05:22:21
Liz Williams: I do. I think a routine every night, you know, getting a bath or shower. Not only does it relax you, it decreases your prep time in the morning, which saves on sleep time. Um, and I think even having that just relaxed time, a story time, if you're thinking of little ones, you know, kindergarten, first grade, you know, reading to them each night as they get older, having them read to you or having them silently read in their room, and even making it a special one on one time, something that they're looking forward to. Maybe you switch off, they get to pick the parent. I know my son's household. That's what they do, that kids get to pick which parent puts the to bed. And it's kind of a, you know, something exciting to look forward to. Um, if they have a special light or a fan or something that helps them sleep, there's no reason, you know, that can't be part of the routine. Um, and then, of course, I always say no television, no electronics, no video games right before bed. It just gets you energized and doesn't give you the tools you need to kind of settle down and get to sleep. 

00:05:22:23 - 00:05:35:27
Jeff Krakoff: Okay. Like, in addition to stimulating you having phones, tablets and other electronics, why else are they bad? Either right before sleep or while you're sleeping? 

00:05:36:18 - 00:07:07:02
Liz Williams: So while you're sleeping, it's really that disruption. You know that buzz, you may not think you hear it, but you do. Your brain hears it whether you realize you do or not. And I actually did look up and kind of preparation for this. Just blue light, right? So why is it so bad for us? And to be honest, it. There was more information than I really realized that there would be. Um, but it actually disrupts your circadian rhythm. Um, so that's the body's natural 24 cycle hour, 24 hour cycle. Um, and light is a major cue for regulating it. And blue light in particular during the evening, signals the brain that it's daytime, so it suppresses our melatonin production and delays sleep. So that's kind of that big. The melatonin suppression is a very big thing and affecting our sleep, but also that our eyes are more sensitive to blue light than any other light. And so it kind of even a very dim a dim blue light can affect our sleep and it can affect our melatonin production. Um, that, you know, just I think that, um, delaying sleep onset often causes other problems. So, you know, if you think that you can't sleep, then maybe you don't try very hard to sleep or if you're trying to fall asleep and it doesn't happen in those few moments, then you're jumping out of bed to do something else. Or for teenagers thinking, oh, I can't sleep, I'm going to play video games. Yeah, and that just leads to a cycle where I've talked to kids who tell me, oh, I wake up at midnight and I just start playing video games. 

00:07:07:29 - 00:07:36:18
Jeff Krakoff: Well, I know you're the expert here, but I wanted to share one more thing. I was having a conversation with a friend. It's a fireman, and he mentioned how many times house fires start with a battery either catching fire, flaring, and even sometimes more of an explosion type of situation when the battery goes bad. That's another reason why you don't want to have electronic devices so close to the bed to your child. Um, but. 

00:07:36:20 - 00:07:38:25
Liz Williams: There are kids that put their phone under their pillow. 

00:07:39:03 - 00:08:02:00
Jeff Krakoff: That's one of the he was telling me. That's one of the worst things you could do, right? Because it's going to cause it to overheat and maybe run the problems. But, you know, getting back to sleep and nutrition, you mentioned how important breakfast you see tied in as much as sleep. Why is eating a good, nutritious breakfast so essential? And what kinds of things should they be thinking about for that breakfast? 

00:08:02:12 - 00:09:06:26
Liz Williams: Well, you know, our bodies need a source of energy to function, right? So, you know, as a middle school nurse, it's a huge passion of mine because I get kids all the time that come in saying they have a headache or a stomach ache. And one of the first questions we say is, did you have breakfast? And if it's early enough, you know, we offer free breakfast for every student at Seneca Valley. So if it's early enough in the day and there's two of us in the nurse's office, we walk them over there and get them breakfast. Um, sometimes I have, you know, things I can give them from my office, but then I also sometimes have access to what's available. Um, I tell teenagers, and this is sort of a way I can get them to relate to it. I ask them, does your phone work if you don't charge it? And of course, they immediately say no. Now with older students, you can sometimes say, does your car run? You know, there are high school students. If you don't put gas in your car, does it run? Well, no. And then I kind of equate that to, well, if you don't give your body and your brain a source of fuel and then expect it to function, well, it's not going to happen. So I think, you know, finding the right foods, you know, protein lasts longer than carbohydrates. 

00:09:07:03 - 00:09:37:06
Liz Williams: Kids will sometimes say, oh yeah, I had a slice of cold pizza, to be honest. Sometimes that's better because there's protein in the cheese than having a Pop-Tart.. Okay. Right. Something that's high in sugar. High in carbohydrates. Um, and the other thing I ask is that, you know, just not including those energy drinks or high caffeine drinks for students. There's so many studies out there linking health problems for adults, let alone children, um, in the use of energy drinks. It's just not a good idea for kids at all. 

00:09:37:08 - 00:10:05:23
Jeff Krakoff: Yeah. So anything with a stimulant like caffeine and sugar not good. Mhm. Okay. So you've been talking a lot about the whole idea of routines so far. So even getting away from sleep and diet how can families partner and work together with their children. Whether it's reviewing planners, checking to make sure homework assignments are being seen and completing and and starting to build those types of academic routines? 

00:10:05:27 - 00:11:32:17
Liz Williams: Sure. So for high school, you know, students are much more independent, a little harder to do that, but especially for the younger students, you know, I recommend reviewing the planner as soon as they get home. It kind of gives you an idea of what are you in for this evening? Right. Um, and then maybe not having them jump right into it. Review the planner, set a plan, and then give them some time to play outside. Maybe if that's the time to play a video game. Right. If it's raining outside, then they can do something that they like to do. Yeah. And then set a time for homework that's as consistent as possible. And also a place where the parent is within reach. I often like to have my kids sit at the kitchen table and do their homework while I was cooking dinner, because then I'm there to answer questions, to point things out. Um, the other thing I say is don't set an end time for homework, because some days it's going to take longer than other days. And if you say, well, we're going to do homework from 5 to 6. Trust me, at 6:00, if they can tell time they are done. They do not want to do any more homework. Um, and one of the biggest things, and whether you are in elementary school and you're doing your spelling list, vocabulary words, or you're in high school doing the periodic table, you know, review the information daily. Um, don't let it wait until the day before the test and then try and study for it. You know, really having that consistent time every day to review. 

00:11:32:21 - 00:11:35:10
Jeff Krakoff: So again, having a habit, having a routine. 

00:11:35:12 - 00:11:37:03
Liz Williams: Is habit and routine. Yeah. 

00:11:37:05 - 00:12:00:12
Jeff Krakoff: And I imagine there's a tie in to attendance with getting good sleep and eating well. Right. Your overall healthier. You're going to be sick hopefully less often. But let's talk about from your perspective, you know, being healthy, getting enough sleep, eating right. How does that affect a student's success in the classroom? 

00:12:01:11 - 00:13:02:27
Liz Williams: Good sleep is healthy. Good nutrition is healthy, and healthy children learn better. They miss less school. Um, the more time you spend in school and the less absences or parties that you have has an absolute direct impact on student success. Okay? You have to be in school to learn And healthy children at miss weigh less school than. And I think, you know, we have to be careful because some students need to miss school for, you know, for certain reasons. They have some health conditions. And I don't want to negate that. Right. And there's certainly time to make up that work. But if your absences are because you're tired and didn't want to get out of bed, or you're at your parties, or because you just couldn't get up in the morning, that's really a time to look at what are our sleep patterns, and can we make some changes at home to improve their attendance? Because again, without being here in school, it's much more difficult to learn on your own or catch up with a teacher later. 

00:13:03:15 - 00:13:14:01
Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So is is there anything we haven't covered in this topic of sleep? Diet? Attendance? Success? Is there anything else you'd like to leave us with? 

00:13:14:07 - 00:13:59:21
Liz Williams: Um, I think honestly, you know, as a group of nurses, um, we like to think of the health office as part of the team. So, you know, we're here to encourage support the students, their families toward a positive educational experience. Um, what happens at home affects school. Just like what happens at school can affect home. So the two environments are consistently in fooling each other. And if there's something going on at home, you know, we just ask that you communicate that with us, share with us what's going on. How can we help your family? How can we help your students? Whether it's calling the teacher, the nurse, the counselor, the administrator, just really that open communication between home and school, I feel is, you know, just instrumental in student success. 

00:14:00:03 - 00:14:16:17
Jeff Krakoff: That's awesome. Well, thanks for sharing all this. I'm sure a lot of listeners are going to get a lot out of this conversation again. This was Liz Williams, who is a nurse at Ryan Gloyer Middle School and also the department head for all the district's nurses. Thank you, and I wish you well for the start of school. 

00:14:16:19 - 00:14:18:16
Liz Williams: Thank you so much, Jeff. Have a great day. 

00:14:18:18 - 00:14:19:09
Jeff Krakoff: You too.