About the Project

Sleep is increasingly recognized as a behaviour essential to a healthy lifestyle and is crucial to children’s development. Children’s sleep has been consistently declining in recent decades and inadequate sleep has been associated with a wide array of negative health consequences. Shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality are also linked to poorer academic outcomes. Sleeping Soundly is a research project aimed to improve the implementation of sleep promotion in schools, with reach to home and school environments. Our team works to understand student, parent, teacher, and school community stakeholder perspectives on sleep, and ways that sleep behaviour can be improved.

For more information about this project contact: sircle@ualberta.ca

Helpful resources for this project include:

Resources

  1. How to create a school culture that promotes sleep. Healthy Schools Alberta Magazine, September 2, 2022.
  2. Sleeping Soundly with students at APPLE Schools. Photobook, June 1, 2021.
  3. Promoting sleep in schools: perspectives from students and parents. Infographic, June 1, 2021.
  4. Seven tips for a better night’s sleep. Folio, October 30, 2020. https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2020/10/seven-tips-for-a-better-nights-sleep.html
  5. How kids can help their parents get a good night’s sleep. folio, October 15, 2019. https://www.folio.ca/how-kids-can-help-their-parents-get-a-good-nights-sleep/
  6. Promoting sleep for healthier, happier kids. HEALTH e-news, March 6, 2018. https://www.ualberta.ca/public-health/news/2018/march/promoting-sleep-for-healthier-happier-kids.html
  7. Six sleep tips for a better night’s sleep. This is Public Health, March 6, 2018. https://www.ualberta.ca/public-health/about/this-is-public-health/this-is-public-health-articles/2018/march/six-sleep-tips-for-a-better-nights-sleep.html
  8. Are Canadian children sleep deprived? This is Public Health, February 27, 2018. https://www.ualberta.ca/public-health/about/this-is-public-health/this-is-public-health-articles/2018/february/are-canadian-children-sleep-deprived.html

Presentations

  1. Sleeping Soundly: Why catching Zzz’s matters for kids. Produced March 15, 2018. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poTpBeahTRY&feature=youtu.be
  2. ABC’s…and also zzz’s: How school communities can help students get enough sleep. Produced March 25, 2022. Available at: https://youtu.be/AXONheBvlpk

Select Publications

  1. Bird, M., Neely, K., Montemurro, G., Mellon, P., MacNeil, M., Brown, C., Sulz, L., Storey, K. (2023). Parent perspectives of sleep in the home: shaping home-school partnerships within school-based sleep promotion initiatives. Preventing Chronic Disease, 20:220395. http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd20.220395
  2. Bird, M., McKernan, C., Montemurro, G., Brown, C., Flynn, J., Neely, K.C., Sobierajski, F., Sulz, L., Storey, K. (2021). “Sleep is healthy for your body and brain”: Use of student-centred photovoice to explore the translation of sleep promotion at school to sleep behaviour at home. Sleep Health, S2352-7218(21)00113-3. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2021.05.006
  3. Storey, K.E. (2020). Later school start times for supporting the education, health, and well-being of high school students. Paediatrics & Child Health, 25(3): 139-142. doi: 10.1093/pch/pxz055. https://academic.oup.com/pch/article/25/3/139/5477553

Select Media

  1. Comprehensive School Health and Sleep Promotion with Dr. Kate Storey. The Podclass, December 16, 2020. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/comprehensive-school-health-sleep-promotion-dr-kate/id1541382368?i=1000502628234
  2. Parents worry about effects of lengthening day in Edmonton schools. Global News Edmonton, November 27, 2019. https://globalnews.ca/news/6220516/edmonton-public-extending-hours-at-high-schools/
  3. Teaming up to help kids get more sleep. CTV News, March 13, 2018. https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1346992
  4. Mind your Zs: schools study adding sleep to their lesson plans. Globe and Mail, September 1, 2019. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-mind-your-zs-teachers-adding-sleep-to-their-lesson-plans/
  5. Schools should catch up on sleep ed: UofA, Promoting healthy habits is crucial for children. Edmonton Metro, March 14, 2018.
  6. Sleeping Soundly: Why catching Zzz’s matters for kids. Edmonton Metro, March 13, 2018.
  7. UAlberta researchers lead the way nationally in maternal, reproductive, child and youth health. UAlberta news, January 15, 2018. https://www.ualberta.ca/medicine/news/2018/january/ualberta-researchers-lead-the-way-nationally-in-maternal-reproductive-child-and-youth-health
  8. Government of Canada invests $1.67 million in research that could hold the key to better health for mothers and healthier futures for infants and children. Canadian Institutes of Health Research News Release, February 23, 2018. https://www.canada.ca/en/institutes-health-research/news/2018/02/government-of-canada-invests-167-million-in-research-that-could-hold-the-key-to-better-health-for-mothers-and-healthier-futures-for-infants-an.html
  9. CIHR invests in New Investigator Grants in Maternal, Reproductive, Child and Youth Health (2017). CIHR News, January 9, 2018. https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/50768.html

Funders