How Many Hours Of Sleep Is Healthy?
Most healthy adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, with children needing between nine and eleven hours.
The rule is that the younger you are, the more sleep you need. For example, babies need fourteen to seventeen hours of sleep per day.
Getting enough sleep is essential for your brain and body to recover from daily activities. Otherwise, you can have a myriad of health problems.
Sleep guidelines
- Newborn to three months – 14 to 17 hours (up to 19 is considered normal)
- 4 to eleven months – 12 to 15 hours
- 1 to 2 years old – 11 to 14 hours
- 3 to 5 years old – 10 to 15 hours
- 6 to 13 years old – 9 to 11 hours
- 14 to 17 years old – 8 to 10 hours
- Adults – 7 to 9 hours
What happens if I get too little sleep?
You might think thtting more sleep is good, but it can be detrimental to your mental and physical performance.
Excessive sleep can impact your critical thinking and productivity and make you feel more stressed and anxious than normal.
What happens to your body with sleep deprivation?
Your body requires sleep to regenerate cells and perform maintenance, and your brain needs sleep to cleanse itself of toxins.
During sleep, new pathways between nerve cells form, helping your brain allocate memory and store new information.
Sleep deprivation stops the brain from performing these nocturnal activities, leading to significant mental fatigue and impairment.
Additionally, your immune system takes a hit. Your immune system triggers an inflammatory response while sleeping, increasing the production of cytokines associated with inflammation. Without sleep, this doesn't happen. Research shows that people who don't get enough sleep get sick more often.
A noticeable effect of sleep deprivation is aches and pains following physical activities due to lactic acid build-up and low protein synthesis.
Why do I still feel tired when I wake up?
If you wake up feeling tired after the minimum recommended amount of sleep, it could be because you didn't spend enough time in deep and REM sleep – the most important of the four sleep stages.
During deep and REM sleep (stages 3 and 4), you become unaware of your surroundings, yet your brain is as active as it is awake. Your brain and body allocate resources to maintenance, performing various activities essential to survival.
The most common reason for lack of deep and REM sleep is being woken up repeatedly at night. Going to the loo, letting the cat in/out, comforting a baby, nightmares, and anxiety can disrupt your sleep.
How can I get more high-quality sleep?
If you have insomnia or another sleep disorder, you should consult your GP and consider therapy and proven treatments for better sleep.
Those who struggle to sleep but don't have a sleep disorder can make lifestyle changes – here are a few recommendations:
- Go to bed and get up at the same time every day.
- If you can't sleep, read a book for half an hour.
- Filter blue light two hours before bedtime (blue light stops the production of the sleep hormone melatonin).
- Turn your smartphone off an hour before bedtime to stop overuse (smartphone overuse is linked to anxiety and sleep quality).
- Try meditating to slow your heart rate.
- Avoid caffeine six hours before bedtime (caffeine is proven to impact sleep quality when consumed six hours before bed).
You can find ten more tips for better sleep below.