Figure Out How Much Sleep You Really Need
Sleep is one of the most important aspects that play a fundamental role in good health. During the sleeping time, your body and mind rest so that they can run properly at wake up time. Consequently, it cleans away unhealthy throwaway from your brain and regulates emotional balance.
In addition, sleeping controls your inner biological clock or so-called circadian rhythm. The internal clock prolongs for about 24-hour and regulates your sleep and awake time. Among its functions, it’s worth mentioning the ability to regulate metabolism, inflammation, and immunity.
Not to mention, the lack and irregular sleep may cause losing control of the proper function of the inner clock.
To sum up, having enough good sleep may help you to
- have a good immune system,
- maintain a healthy body weight,
- process memory and information,
- fortifying virtually every system in your body.
The time you need to sleep per night depends on various factors — especially your age. The general recommendations on how much sleep you need should be associated with your individual needs and daily activity level.
Moreover, inasmuch as sleep is important for your body, consider applying healthy tips for getting quality sleep during a tumultuous time.
Here is the table outlining sleep duration corresponding to age groups.
| Age range | Hours needed | |
| Newborn | 0-3 months | 14-17 hours |
| Infant | 4-11 months | 12-15 hours |
| Toddler | 1-2 years | 11-14 hours |
| Preschooler | 3-5 years | 10-13 hours |
| School-age child | 6-13 years | 9-11 hours |
| Teenager | 14-17 years | 8-10 hours |
| Young Adult | 18-25 years | 7-9 hours |
| Adult | 26-64 years | 7-9 hours |
| Older Adult | 65 + years | 7-8 hours |
Besides the age group, as a major factor, some other factors may also affect your sleep duration. They include pregnancy, sleep quality, and previous sleep deprivation. At some point, pregnancy may affect sleep quantity because of the changes in the body. Coupled with sleep quantity, quality matters as well.
A lack of sleep may cause sleep deprivation that leads to inappropriate body functions. And also getting too little sleep over some nights may also affect performing mental tasks.
Ideal Bedtime Sleep
Even if you sleep many hours at night, feeling tired the next day may be a sign of low-quality sleep. The reasons affecting the quality of sleep may be different. Some of them are
- breathing difficulties
- frequency of waking up during a night
- bed comfort
- an environment (cold, hot, warm, etc.)
A person who actually isn’t getting the full night’s sleep in some period of time may experience a range of symptoms.
- fatigue
- drowsiness
- irritability
- less productivity
- sluggishness
- mood changes
- difficulty focusing and remembering
- dark circles under your eyes
The asleep period contains five to six sleep cycles also known as sleep–dream cycle, or REM-NREM cycle. An average cycle prolongs 90 minutes. To calculate your bedtime, you need to multiply 90 min by five times which is equal to 450 mins, or just 7.5 hours. Multiplying it by six times you’ll get 9 hours of ideal bedtime.
Let’s dig deeper into sleep cycles.
- The first 4 cycles are parts of non-rapid eye movement (NREM)
- The last cycle is rapid eye movement (REM).
To feel more productive, mentally, and emotionally balanced during the whole day get enough quality sleep!
