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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

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Discover what this means

Learn about healthy sleep habits

Take on some mazes and miss the bedtime distractions, as you learn how to avoid the things that make sleep tricky.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Pens or pencils
  • Erasers
  • Rulers
  • A4 paper
  • Tables
  • Chairs
Sleep mazes
PDF – 179.8KB
Download Sleep mazes

Before you begin

  • Print out copies of the ‘Sleep mazes’ sheet so that there’s one for each person.
  • Set up tables and chairs, if needed.

Time to a-maze

  1. Gather everyone together and ask the groups what things could make it hard for them to have a good night’s sleep. Some examples are watching screens, eating too close to bedtime, too much caffeine, stress, heat or humidity, light, and noise.
  2. Everyone should think about which things they find the most distracting when they’re trying to sleep. Ask people why these distractions hold us back when we are trying to sleep.
  3. Next, ask people to come up with their perfect conditions for sleep. You use use their imaginations for the place and time – maybe they’d like to think about a peaceful hammock on a warm beach in the Caribbean? Maybe it’s in a blanket fort in their home? Or in a tent in the Lake District to watch the stars?
  4. Give everyone a ‘Sleep mazes’ sheet and a pencil.
  5. Everyone should try to solve the two mazes, without looking at the answers. They need to draw a single line from the arrow to the bed, avoiding the bedtime distraction symbols inside the maze.
  6. Once they’ve solved the mazes, everyone should try to make their own. Give everyone some paper, a ruler, colouring pencils, pencils and erasers. Squared paper may be easier for people to use.
  7. Everyone should create a maze with a start and a finish, just like the ones they’ve just solved. People can make their mazes easier or harder, depending on how many possible paths their are to the finish. 
  8. People could add some bedtime distractions to their maze. It’s up to them how many obstacles they add and what they include – this is a great chance to get creative.
  9. When all of the mazes are ready, everyone should swap theirs with someone else, then try to solve their new maze. Can they get to bed without getting distracted?
  10. If you want to make the mazes reusable, you could place them in a plastic wallet and use whiteboard markers to solve them. The marker can then be wiped off and the maze can be done again. This means people could solve lots of other mazes. You could also ask people to solve the mazes in pencil and use an eraser to reuse them.
  11. Everyone should come back together and chat about who made the toughest maze. What made it difficult?

Reflection

This activity was all about things that can distract us from sleeping or healthy bedtime habits. Was anyone surprised at how many things affect the quality of sleep? How could people change their behaviour to avoid these distractions? Did anyone find out something new that might have been affecting their sleep?

Everyone then solved a bedtime-themed maze, before making one of their own. Which was harder to solve: the ones on the sheet or the ones drawn by everyone else? What did people do to work out a route to the finish without hitting a dead end or distraction?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

  • To make this activity easier, the first maze on the ‘Sleep mazes’ sheet is easier than the second one. If anyone struggles with this kind of puzzle, they could stick to the first one. If anyone gets stuck, a friend or adult could give them a hint.
  • To make this activity harder, maze-makers might like to attempt to draw a different-shaped maze (for example, a rectangle or circle, instead of a square). See how difficult they can make their puzzles for others to solve.
  • You could draw out the mazes onto larger paper if anyone needs a large print version. 
  • People could work in pairs or small groups if anyone needs support.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

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There are loads of puzzles and games that could be made to help others learn about the struggle for sleep. If the group enjoyed making mazes, they might like to create a board game, where players must get to their bed, avoiding the bedtime distractions as they go. Everyone should think about other popular board games and how they make it difficult for players to reach the end.