We conducted a within-subject study of 12 male students without a sleep disorder. Each subject has presented an odor [lavender, jasmine, or odorless air (control)] for 5 min while they were in a resting position, and the subjects then napped for 20 min. The heart rate during the nap was higher in the lavender condition than in the other conditions. These results showed that odor presentation before sleep onset prevented the subsequent enhancement of parasympathetic nervous activity. Odor preference should be considered as a factor that negatively influenced the results. Odors affect biological reactions based on their preference. Some fragrances affect mood based on individual preferences and the degree of preference, whereas some do not affect mood. In this study, the heart rate increased significantly due to the palatability of lavender. Therefore, in this study, we observed that odor preference had a significant influence on heart rate, which suggests that the sedative effects of lavender may be masked.

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Sleep is critical for children’s physical and mental development. Sleep patterns are present since the fetal period but their structure and physiology is modified according with the maturation of the central nervous system. Poor sleep may be more pronounced in children with neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders (ADHD). Children with ASD and/or ADHD experience a wide range of forms of sleep disturbance including insomnias, hypersomnia, parasomnias, sleep-related breathing disorders, sleep-related movement disorders and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders from the period of early childhood. Above all, sleep education is valid especially for sleep-onset insomnia and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders. The strongest evidences to date on promoting sleep in ASD and/or ADHD supports sleep education, ecological and behavioral interventions, and exogenous melatonin. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the relationship between sleep disorders and neurodevelopmental disorders and presents the importance of sleep education in the early stage of development especially for children with ASD and/or ADHD.

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The purpose of this review is to describe how sleep habits and sleep problems change from childhood to adolescence and what kinds of sleep education and public health approach is needed to promote sleep health. Sleep debt and social jet lag is likely to occur because children's sleep is disturbed with bio-psycho-social change with secondary growth. Therefore, it is important to provide education that supports sleep hygiene and behavior to maintain sleep health at school. Moreover, it is necessary to build a health system that supports good sleep for children. In this review, two forms of sleep education, sleep knowledge education program and sleep promotion program based on cognitive and behavioral strategies, were explained and the current situation and prospects in Japan were discussed. In addition, the current state of public health activities for ensuring adequate sleep among children and adolescents in Japan and overseas, for example school start later, were reviewed and the future policy making was discussed.

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Sleep is essential for children’s and adolescents’ health and well-being. Evidence, however, suggests insufficient sleep is a prevalent problem among them from many countries across the world, and is independently associated with a range of detrimental physical and mental health outcomes. These multiple negative impacts of insufficient sleep emphasize the need to provide children, adolescents, their parents and teachers with education on healthy sleep and tools that assist in achieving such sleep. The goal of this paper is to review sleep problems among children and adolescents, and to offer practical way to achieve a sleep education for them in school setting. Review of the published literature indicated that (1) sleep duration declines with age, resulting in a significantly reduced time in bed in older compared to younger adolescents, (2) sleep debt attributable to such insufficient sleep causes discrepancy in wake-up time on school days and free days, (3) these sleep problems are associated with daytime sleepiness and lowered mental/physical health, and (4) sleep education program with self-help treatment was effective on irregular sleep/wake patterns, daytime sleepiness and irritability. The key point for the success of sleep education program in school setting discussed.

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Sleep is vital for health and growth of children and adolescents. Sleep in early life changes dramatically with physiological development and also with influence from family and surrounding environments. It has also been emphasized that increasing use of screen media and games are impacting on sleep in children. Considering the role of caregivers in establishing good sleep hygiene in children and adolescents, sleep education need to target not only the children but also the caregivers. In this review, update about sleep, screen media and game usage are summarized and guidelines related to screen media use in infancy was explained. Based on the recent understanding of the above issues, how sleep education can tackle these problems from early childhood through adolescence was discussed.

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Establishing the lifestyle rhythm is a foundation of early development that is crucial for promoting the physical and psychological development of children. Family education is necessary for establishing a regular lifestyle rhythm, as well as adequate sleep duration for that age. The present study introduces a sleep education program for kindergarten and elementary school children and their parents and provides an overview of the process of developing sleep education leaders. This process consists of (1) developing nursing teachers that have sufficient knowledge about children’s health into sleep education leaders at school; (2) sharing the results of a questionnaire survey and understanding children’s lifestyle rhythm; (3) the school and the university collaborating to practice sleep education by recording sleep diaries, and fostering parents to develop as sleep education leaders. Practicing sleep education must not require sudden, or complete changes, and it is essential to share a sleep diary with the whole family and give family members supportive comments and advice. It is considered that sleep education would be useful if children and their parents can experience positive changes in their physical and psychological awareness that would improve their lifestyle.

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According to a survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, elementary and junior high school students in Okinawa have the lowest academic ability nationwide. To address this issue, we conducted sleep intervention research aimed at improving the academic ability of children in Okinawa Prefecture, in 2012, 2015, and 2017. We conducted sleep interventions for elementary school students only in 2012, and for elementary school students and their parents in both 2015 and 2017. In every year, sleep diary and Q & A sleep classes were held for 4 months in 2012, and for 1 month in 2015 and 2017. The 2017 interventional study conducted an electronic sleep diaries and e-learning sleep education using a web application. As the result, in both 2012 and 2015, the intervention group showed a significant improvement in sleep time and quality and a significant improvement in academic ability, such as national language, arithmetic, science, social studies, compared to the control group. Only a few parents and children participated in the 2017 intervention, because of the difficulty of logging in web applications and their low motivation for sleep education. This study suggested that the method of using the face-to-face class and the paper sleep diary is more effective than the web application in the population approach of sleep intervention at school.

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The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the effects of the sleep education with self-help treatment for junior high and high school students. Authors developed the sleep educational program using a checklist of sleep-promoting behaviors based on a goal-setting strategy (self-help treatment), and verified these effects on sleep-promoting behaviors, sleep habits and daytime sleepiness in adolescents. Sleep education with self-help treatment in schools revealed that delayed or irregular sleep/wake patterns significantly improved. Also, it was effective for improving sleep-onset latency, sleep satisfaction, mood during the morning, and daytime sleepiness. Furthermore, the strategy of the sleep education using active learning was also effective in improving sleep-promoting behavior and reducing irritability. Moreover, this article referred to the importance of sleep education in schools and indicated that sleep improvement assistance requires (1) the dissemination of appropriate knowledge, (2) providing support tools, and (3) the development of human resources.

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The daily life rhythms of university students, compared to other age groups, are apt to be irregular. The author conducted five classes on sleep at the Hiroshima University for disseminating accurate knowledge on sleep and help students acquire a regular daily life rhythm. Over 2,800 students attended one of these classes entitled, “Science of Sleep,” which was conducted as a liberal arts education class. This class was efficacious in improving students’ sleep habits through lectures and learning experiences using sleep logs. This article reports on the practice of sleep education for university students.

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