Sleep Scotland was founded in 1998. It is a charity which promotes healthy sleep in children and young people through sleep awareness, sleep counselling and education. For the last fifteen years, the organisation has worked throughout Scotland developing sleep services and providing intensive sleep programmes for children with additional support needs by training sleep counsellors to work directly with families in need of sleep support.
In 2010, Sleep Scotland launched Sound Sleep, a project aimed at raising awareness, in mainstream schools and youth groups, of the importance of sleep for teenagers’ emotional and physical wellbeing. Sound Sleep incorporates a one-day ‘Train the Trainer’ course, and a training pack to equip professionals with the knowledge and tools required to educate teenagers on the importance of good sleep habits.
Through sleep counselling, training and developing sleep awareness, Sleep Scotland aims to give children and young people the best chance to reach their potential, becoming successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens.
Unmet need
Research by Richdale et al (2001) estimates that between 44% and 83% of children with additional support needs suffer from sleep problems.
Over 500* professionals have been trained by Sleep Scotland to work with families with children with additional support needs across Scotland to develop a sleep programme.
(*as of October 2017)
Our achievements
Since Sleep Scotland was founded in 1998, we have
- trained 697 sleep counsellors to provide sleep support across 29 local authorities in Scotland;
- improved the sleep patterns of 2,808 children in Scotland and raised the quality of life of their parents and siblings;
- trained 503 sleep counsellors to provide sleep support to families across 41 local authorities in England.