Sleep lessons: sweet dreams are made of these?

Parents have struggled for years to encourage children to go to bed on time. In Scotland, however, all the family should be enjoying sweet dreams in the future, as pupils are to be given lessons in how to sleep. The charity Sleep Scotland is providing classes free of charge in a pilot scheme at three schools in Glasgow in an attempt to tackle problems caused by a lack of sleep.

Glasgow city council estimates that as many as one in four teenagers are not getting the appropriate nine hours of slumber a night, and said there was "increasing evidence" suggesting a link between lack of sleep and obesity, lower academic achievement and depression. Jane Anstell, the director and founder of Sleep Scotland, said lack of sleep among UK teenagers was a "huge problem".

"We started off working with kids with special needs with sleep problems," she said. "And basically in my teenage clinic I felt I'd got a lot of kids who maybe didn't have ADHD or Asperger's – they had total sleep deprivation." Ansell said the classes could help improve teenagers' behaviour, and she hoped to roll out lessons across Scotland.

Nikki Cameron, a sleep counsellor at Sleep Scotland, put together an outline for the lessons and offered them to the council using funding from Children in Need. "The idea was we could talk to teenagers and say: 'This is what we know happens if you don't sleep; these are all things that we can see in behaviour, in attainment at school, in your general mental and physical health and wellbeing that we know are linked to sleep,'" she said. "And if you were able to take responsibility about when to go to bed and to sleep for nine hours, then you will benefit from it."

The classes will be offered as workshops for groups of 20 secondary school pupils, with an after-school session for parents and staff advising how to support teenagers to get good sleep. Cameron said just two classes could successfully advise pupils on how to adjust their sleeping habits for the better.

Councillor Paul Rooney, the executive member for education at Glasgow city council, said it was important to make parents aware of the importance of good sleep. "We are committed to providing guidance to young people so they can do what they can to get the right amount of sleep and maximise their learning potential," he said.

Here are Sleep Scotland's top tips for better sleep:

Make sure you have a substantial main meal at a regular teatime.

Restrict homework, exercise and computer games to the early evening.

The hour before bedtime should be for relaxing and bathing, and should include no stimulating activities.

Switch off the computer, mobile and television before having a bath. Try listening to music, radio, or read a book.

Avoid chocolate, caffeine, additives, alcohol and nicotine before bedtime. Have have a warm milky drink instead.

Your bedroom should be quiet and dark; make sure it is a media-free zone.

Keep to a regular bedtime.