Sleep :: South Yorkshire I.C.S.

Why is Sleep important?

Sleep is important because it affects our mental, physical, and emotional well-being. The benefits of good sleep can affect every moment of our day and every part of our life. Achieving good sleep is essential to both our activities and to our health.

Sleep is an essential function that allows your body and mind to recharge, leaving you refreshed and alert when you wake up. Healthy sleep also helps the body remain healthy and stave off diseases. Without enough sleep, the brain cannot function properly. This can impair your abilities to concentrate, think clearly, and process memories.

Most adults require between seven and nine hours of nightly sleep. Children and teenagers need substantially more sleep, particularly if they are younger than five years of age. Work schedules, day-to-day stressors, a disruptive bedroom environment, and medical conditions can all prevent us from getting enough sleep.

The South Yorkshire ICS Sleep Programme

Due to the importance of good sleep on wellbeing, we have commissioned the Sleep School to deliver a programme to help improve your sleep to help you live better.

The programme is delivered by global experts who will teach you evidence-based clinical tools and practical advice to help you to:

Improve your sleep quality and morning refreshments levels
Manage daytime stress and mentally detach from work
And optimise your energy through healthy diet and exercise habits

As part of the programme we have a digital Sleep Support Platform containing a wide range of sleep help guides and the Sleep School app to teach you about and support your sleep over an entire year. The platform contains recordings of all of the Sleep School sessions that have been delivered.

You can access the platform here with the password sy123

To access the app you will need to firstly access the platform and then click on the 'Sleep School App' tab on the support platform homepage. You will then need to click on the yellow 'Get App' button. From here you will be able to create an account for the app with your own email and password. This will then link you to the Apple App Store or Google Play to download the app. Once downloaded, you can then open the app on your mobile device and sign In with the same email and password you created your account with previously.

The Sleep Charity

The Sleep Charity is a national charity, based in South Yorkshire which provides advice and support to empower the nation to sleep better. They campaign to improve sleep support and access to high quality information, raise awareness of the value of a good night's sleep and promote understanding around the complexities of sleep.

Their website includes a wide range of useful information about sleep for professionals, adults and children including guides, advice sheets and podcasts. They also run a national sleep helpline (03303 530 541) which operates on specific days and times (Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays 7-9pm and Mondays & Wednesdays 9-11am excluding bank holidays). Visit their website for more information.

Free apps for NHS staff until 31st March 2025 which include sleep content

Headspace - this mental health app offers stress-reduction tools and supports those with sleep issues.

Unmind - this mental health app empowers staff to improve their wellbeing with scientifically backed assessments, tools, and training. It includes useful resources such as a “Sleep for Shift Work Course”. Once downloaded, put in your organisation name as ‘NHS’, then create an account with your NHS email address. It is free for NHS staff until 31st March 2025.
Work Life Central - this app and platform includes sleep articles and resources.

NHS Employers webpage about sleep, fatigue and the workplace

This includes useful information, statistics, guidance for shift workers, advice for employers and employees, factors that impact sleep and case studies, plus links to lots of of useful resources.

Visit the webpage here

Fatigue risk management for health & social care report

This report from the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors presents a roadmap for improving fatigue risk management in health and social care to improve patient safety and individual health workers' health and wellbeing.

Fatigue risk management for health and social care | CIEHF

Menopause and Sleep with

Dr Caitlin Chasser

To watch the recording of this session click here

Useful Resources from Dr Chasser:

Free CBT-I for NHS Heros
- For any NHS workers interested in free access to our Retrain Your Sleep CBT-I programme please ask them to email info@thesleepproject.life. We can then send them the login details and their free access code. If they have any colleagues who are also interested then again ask them to email our team.
Diagnose your Sleep!
- For anyone who wants to take our sleep quiz to pinpoint where their sleep is going wrong, the link can be found here.
Can you help us by spreading the word?
- Do you know someone else who suffers from sleep difficulties— either with their baby, child or as an adult? If so, please spread the love so we can share our message far and wide. Your friends and family are our friends and family too - if they drop us an email at info@thesleepproject.life and mention “Friends & Family” in the email subject line, we will be happy to offer them a 30% discount on any of our online programmes.