Sleep, Screens and Stress: What Our Experts Told Years 7 and 8

Professor Donna Cross and Dr Nick Coatsworth joined Wesley students for a practical conversation about technology, sleep, stress, friendship and some of the habits that can help young people stay well.

Mr Barron was joined by Professor Donna Cross and Dr Nick Coatsworth.

There was a moment during a wellbeing conversation last week when Dr Nick Coatsworth asked the Year 7 and 8 students to raise their hands if they had experienced some level of conflict with their parents about technology in the previous week.

Almost every hand went up.

‘That’s great,’ he said, laughing. ‘So, all of us.’

Led by Head of College Mr Ross Barron, the discussion with Dr Coatsworth and Prof Donna Cross brought together two members of Wesley’s College Council who have a huge amount of experience in health and the lives of young people.

Professor Donna Cross OAM is an Emeritus Professor at The University of Western Australia and Senior Honorary Fellow with the Telethon Kids Institute. Her work over more than 40 years has focused on areas including student wellbeing, bullying prevention and school-based mental health.

Dr Nick Coatsworth is a Wesley Old Collegian who attended the College from 1985 to 1995. A senior Australian health leader, he served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic and has held executive roles with the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre and Canberra Health Services.

Their conversation ranged from screens and sleep to anxiety, friendship and vaping.

What has changed for 12 and 13-year-olds over the past 10 to 15 years?

Professor Donna Cross:
I mean, the obvious answer is technology and what technology can do.

I think sometimes when I’m asked to come and talk about technology, everyone in the audience is expecting me to say that technology is really bad and that you shouldn’t use it. But the research is actually very interesting.

A moderate level of technology use is actually okay and quite healthy.

One of the most important things we’ve discovered in the last 10 years is how important technology is to keep you connected actively with your friends. When you’re using your online environment to support your mates, when you’re using the online environment to share stuff that you have in common, interests that you have, it’s really active and proactive. I think the research is really solid to say that’s important.

It’s when we just sit there passively and when we come off and we feel low, and we’re spending time online that makes us anxious; that kind of behaviour is obviously quite high risk.

Dr Nick Coatsworth:
The most I’ve learnt is by being a dad of a 13-year-old. My son is the same age as many of you guys.

How many of you have had some level of conflict with your parents over technology use in the past week?

What I want to say, both as a dad and a doctor, is that it’s always coming from the place of worry and concern. I’m learning about the technology just as much as my son is.

There’s a point where too much can start to interfere, but then it’s really up to you guys to understand what’s going on. So, if you’re feeling low or agitated or more stressed, or when you get off the devices it doesn’t feel good, or if the amount of conflict, particularly with parents, seems to be increasing, you might be on the wrong side of that optimisation curve.

What habits do teenagers underestimate?

Professor Donna Cross:
I think sleep. The research says you do need eight to 10 hours. Lots of people like to say, ‘Oh no, I get by on less.’ But sleep, of course, is something that needs to be managed really, really well.

And I think being really active in your technology use – being aware you’re using it, and setting your own boundaries; places you don’t use it, like mealtime, bedroom, when you’re with others. Really important boundaries.

Of course, I’ll have to keep going back to this theme: keeping active. It’s just so important.’

Dr Nick Coatsworth:
I’m going to say the same, and just a couple of strategies that I was reflecting on before I came here.

When your phone beeps with your WhatsApp message or Snapchat or whatever, you are getting a little bit of a release of what’s called dopamine. Sometimes it’s probably a little bit of adrenaline as well, where you get that little thing in your stomach: ‘I wonder what someone’s saying there.’

If that happens 15 minutes before you go to bed, then your body is in an activated state. Whereas what you actually want at that sort of time is for your brain to really calm down.

My advice, my strong advice, and I have this chat with my own kids, is to make sure your preferred device is switched off, whether that’s iPhone, iPad, PlayStation, or whatever else. Ideally, if it’s a portable device, one little change you can make is just to have that outside of your bedroom.

What should young people do when they start to feel anxious or overwhelmed?

Dr Nick Coatsworth:
I think it’s going to be different for everyone, and people’s perceptions of anxiety and stress are very different.

When I think about it, it’s: ‘is this something that is happening to me more often than not? And is it starting to interfere with my friendships, my schoolwork, conflict with parents?’

Before you get to that stage, where there’s just a feeling there, just in the pit of your stomach – we call it fight or flight, and you’re sort of in a flight mode, like you want to get away from things – I think that’s when to start changing what you’re doing to ensure that you’re sleeping more.

Make sure you’re nurturing your friendships. I think that’s really important. Activity and exercise too – your bodies are screaming out for that. There are often small adjustments you can make.

Professor Donna Cross:
I think part of it is self-awareness. ‘When am I stressed and when am I anxious?’ or ‘When is it getting really, really tough to deal with stuff?’

Stress is usually related to a particular event or to something that you can put your finger on and say, ‘Yeah, I’m really concerned about the exams,’ or ‘I’m concerned about a game coming up on the weekend,’ or whatever. The stress sits around that.

But anxiety is this ongoing feeling where you’re always feeling a bit low and really having difficulties.

It’s important to be really aware of your body and how you’re reacting at different times to say, ‘Is this stress or is this something that’s been going on for a while?’ If it continues over days and days and days where you have a low mood all the time, then that’s perhaps moving into something that needs a lot more help.

What difference can someone make when a friend is having a difficult time online?

Dr Nick Coatsworth:
Growing up is fundamentally no different now to how it was 30 years ago, but if you do make a mistake, and we all do growing up, the problem is now that it can be magnified and things can happen so quickly.

It happened to one of our kids where they made a mistake online and it became a very, very lonely experience for them, when all that was needed to change that for that particular child of mine would have been people within their cohort to just reach out to them and say, ‘Hey, it’s okay,’ or ‘Hey, I understand that was a mistake.’

We’re creatures that crave the group, aren’t we? And if there are situations where we’re pushed out of the group, or at least perceive that we’re pushed out of the group, that can be an incredibly lonely experience.

So, if that ever happens, and it will happen to someone in this room, make sure you’re there to put your hand on their back and say, ‘It’s okay.’

Professor Donna Cross:
We were just looking at some data recently that showed us what a difference it makes when someone acts as a supporter.

A lot of people talk about upstanders and bystanders and so on, but if you’re a witness to things that are happening online and you see someone who’s maybe experiencing some bad stuff, your efforts to let them know that you’re there can make a difference.

You might go through a different channel. That might be on Instagram, but you contact them through WhatsApp and say, ‘Look, I saw what happened. That looks really tough. I’m here if you need help.’

If that was something that each of you were able to do for your friends, that would be an amazing contribution to the wellbeing of your friend, but also the culture in the school, because when you stand up for someone, they remember.

What does research say about protective behaviours for young people?

Professor Donna Cross:
I think the most important thing that we’ve learnt from research is the importance of connection and belonging and having multiple people that you can talk to, and for those people to be trusted adults or other people in your life who you can rely on.

If you have multiple friendship groups, that’s so protective for you. Sometimes that’s tough if you play all your sport at school and obviously you spend a huge amount of your day here. But if you do anything outside of school, those friendship groups are really important.

And finding friends who are reciprocated friends. So they care about you as much as you care about them. Because, obviously, it’s not protective to be around someone where you always feel like you’re giving more than they are.

Having older and younger friends is really important too, because when you leave school, you’ll be mixing with people of all ages, and having that practice and just knowing those groups is really important and highly protective as well.

What is the science saying about vaping?

Dr Nick Coatsworth:
Well, the science is clear: stay away from it. And there are two very clear reasons for that.

The first one is that nicotine is one of the most addictive substances. We have nervous receptors in our body called nicotinic receptors, and nicotine activates them. That’s why smoking tobacco has been around for about 10,000 years.

There’s a problem with vaping though, because you’ve got easily accessible knock-your-head-off amounts of nicotine, and you become very, very, very dependent on it. Problem number one.

Problem number two is that these are unregulated products. That means you don’t know where they’re produced. The liquid vapour could have anything in it and there have been small numbers, but notable numbers, of people who have really trashed their lungs because of what we call adulterants, things that have been added in the manufacturing process.

 Answers have been edited for length and clarity. The full conversation can be seen here.