Teach Primary Issue 18.7

www.teachwire.ne t | 23 E at. Sleep. Teach. Repeat. For some teachers, that should read ‘Eat. Lay Awake All Night Worrying. Teach. Repeat.’ Sleep is a precious resource. Teaching gets into your system, sabotages your circadian rhythm, and ensures you fret about every mortal thing to do with school. You’ve tried snorting lavender, and piped the crackling fire and rain sound apps through your headphones; you’ve munched on magnesium, zoned out on zinc and even done DIY acupuncture with biofeedback. And yet, you still find yourself a bundle of nerves, agonising over Jaffar’s IEP and wondering whether a horseshoe seating plan would be better for teaching magnets. There’s no point going ‘along the corridor and up the stairs to Bedfordshire’, when all you can think about is your coordinates lesson the next day. Once again, you’re wide awake before cockcrow. So, what do you do? Some restless teachers jump on their preferred social media platform and join fellow sleep-starved souls at the ‘5am Club’. The first to post lets everyone know the virtual kettle is on and toast is on the way. This dawn chorus of early risers busily share their ambitions for the day, their worries, their mission statements and even their lesson plans. Some log in even earlier than 5am, as a badge of honour, and let the world know that they are in the fast lane of slaying the day and have already meditated, done a downward dog, been for a 5K run and completed their gratitude journal. Most are just happy to share what a crap night’s sleep they’ve had and how much they are dreading teaching ‘time’ to their Year 3 class straight after playground duty. As more and more members join the chat, comments get bashed back and forth over the net. Please stop. Can there be anything more damaging to teacher mental health and wellbeing than this competitive virtual staffroom that celebrates sleeplessness, anxiety and overachievement? The early bird doesn’t always catch the worm. Rise-and-shiners are full of stress hormones, and more likely to catch colds. Last year’s Teacher Wellbeing Index from Education Support ( tinyurl.com/tp- WellbeingIndex ) reported many symptoms of poor mental health amongst education staff. The most common was difficulty sleeping, with senior leaders experiencing the highest levels of insomnia. The 5am club might be a cathartic outlet for some, but it’s further contributing to the burn-out, stress, exhaustion and insomnia of many. It’s not healthy. There will be those who say you can ‘own the day’ and elevate your life by joining the 5am club, but these aren’t normally teachers at the coalface. Far from being the power hour, the 5am club is a toxic time zone and there’s no gold star for being a member. w .teachwire.net | 17 A letter to... Joining the 5am Club might seem like a good idea at the time – but it’s no way to deal with insomnia, warns John Dabell Each issueweaskacontributor to penanote theywould love to send Early risers John Dabell is a former teacher, a hoister of happiness, mental health philanthropist, fresh-air fiend, threshold adventurer and disability activist. VO I C E S There are some jammy teachers who do manage to sleep deeper than the Mariana trench and get a full eight hours. But these are generally the colleagues that have bagged an early morning PPA slot, are working two days a week or are nearing retirement. What can you do though? You know that ditching coffee will help break the insomnia cycle, and so will nixing the screens before News at Ten. But you aren’t prepared to go that far. Well, did you hear about the primary that trialled a six-week after-school twilight sleep clinic for their bleary-eyed staff? Apparently it worked wonders. Each Monday, everyone rocked up with sleeping bags in the assembly hall for their ‘staff meeting by osmosis’. They were encouraged to nod off and allow the meeting to wash over them. SLT administered biofeedback and whispered the ‘Soft kitty, warm kitty’ lullaby, whilst a slide deck with embedded ASMR videos on ‘comparative judgement to assess oracy’ was projected onto the ceiling. This culminated in an end-of-term school sleepover and pillow fight, fuelled by passionflower tea, CBD and whale song. Insomnia is now down by 28 per cent and ‘early rising’ by 41 per cent. Staff reported they had ‘never felt more alive’. Perhaps the ‘Bring Your Own Sleeping Bag to the Next Staff Meeting Club’ could make happy Slumberjacks and Jills of us all? Yours, John “Did you hear about the primary that trialled a twilight sleep clinic?”