Teens use fiction to champion sleep health

High school students today face an overwhelming number of responsibilities: homework, studying for tests, SAT/ACT, extracurriculars, sports, college applications, etc.

With all of this work piling up, it’s no wonder that around 70% of students are sleep deprived. Sleep health and deprivation have been an increasing problem among adolescents and the members of the President’s Junior Leadership Council (PJLC) at Northern Westchester Hospital are working together to find solutions to this growing issue as a part of this year’s main initiative.

The PJLC is a group of 50 high school students from eight school districts in Northern Westchester. The schools involved include: Byram Hills High School, Fox Lane High School, Horace Greeley High School, John Jay Katonah-Lewisboro High School, North Salem High School, Pleasantville High School, Somers High School and Yorktown High School. The members, spearheaded by Amy Rosenfeld, senior manager of Student Experiences/Community Health at Northern Westchester Hospital, developed public health campaigns that empower peers in their communities to lead healthier lifestyles.

This year, the PJLC has created a novel, "Dream Beam Chronicles: Guardian of the Night," targeted towards 3rd-5th-graders, encouraging children to develop healthy sleep habits from a young age. Our goals were to encourage healthy sleep hygiene, educate about getting more and better sleep, and make sleep “cool” to the younger generation.

The novel follows Patricia Johnson, or PJ, an 11-year-old girl with a secret superpower—she can enter her friends' dreams and help them defeat their personal "sleep monsters." When PJ’s best friend Dani starts struggling with terrifying nightmares, PJ realizes that lack of sleep is not just about being tired; it’s a real monster that affects kids in different ways. As she journeys through Dani's dream, and later the dreams of Margot, Harry and Sam, PJ helps each friend conquer fears caused by overthinking, technology addiction, fear of darkness and eating too much sugar. Through teamwork, courage and the magic of a "dream beam" flashlight, PJ teaches her friends how to regain peaceful sleep and healthier habits in the real world.

As PJ helps more friends, however, the toll of nightly dream-saving wears on her—until her friends figure out her secret and team up to become the "Dream Beam Team." Now working together, they spread healthy sleep habits throughout their school, battling dream monsters as "Guardians of the Night." Through a fast-paced story, the book teaches young readers about the importance of sleep, facing fears and supporting one another with kindness and strength. Dream Beam Chronicles hopes to leave readers inspired to protect their own sleep and build better habits in its readers.

“I hope this book helps younger students understand the importance of sleep for their health and well-being," said Somers High School sophomore Smera Thekkenmar. "It is especially important for them to develop healthy bedtime routines now, so it can help them as they get older.”

The PJLC members are especially grateful for the support they received in bringing Dream Beam Chronicles to life. With guidance from author Nick Bruel, expert advice from Dr. Vera Feuer, medical director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Northwell Health, and Anne Van Der Veer, program manager of Community Health at Cohen Children’s Medical Center at Northwell, and encouragement from the leadership at Northern Westchester Hospital, the students were able to turn their ideas into a full novel.

“Creating our book on the importance of sleep was a collaborative experience if nothing else," said Horace Greeley High School junior Katelyn Beicke. "We received helpful advice from decorated author Nick Bruel, author of the Bad Kitty series, which helped our group to solidify a storyline that would reach our target audience. In addition, our group leader, Amy Rosenfeld, helped us stay on top of our work and encouraged us to be as creative as we could get, while remembering to communicate with each other to make the book cohesive. Amy is always the backbone of our council, fostering a vibrant group of high schoolers who are all passionate about public health and wellness, and educating others on it.”

The PJLC also hopes to publish and print these books to reach more students.

“Now that we’ve gotten our message written into a storybook, it is also our goal to actually get children to read it — to deliver our purpose to them," said North Salem High School junior Joey Centofanti. "What’s unique about our book is that we are our own publisher. In order to deliver our point to our intended audience, we hope to distribute our children’s books to libraries and elementary classrooms, enabling them to access our book. Speaking for myself, I want younger children to learn from the mistakes that the generation above them made — losing the utmost priority of sleep. I believe that it is possible to fulfill this mission by uniting as a community to encourage children to read our book in classrooms, libraries and community centers, as well as by urging parents to add our book to their list of nighttime stories.”

The PJLC’s mission doesn’t end with this book. They hope to encourage students, families and schools to take sleep seriously- starting with conversations, building better habits, and making sleep health a priority.

“We created the book to be not only educational but also entertaining," said Yorktown High School junior Talia Pierson. "It was fun and meaningful to be a part of the book-writing process knowing that we, as high schoolers, may have benefited from reading a similar book, written by our older role models when we were younger.”

With the right knowledge and support, every student can get the rest they need to be their best, both now and in the future. After all, as PJ and the Dream Beam Team learned, a good night’s sleep really is the ultimate superpower.

Vaishnavi Ravindranath is a Yorktown High School junior.