Find out how many hours of sleep you and your loved ones really need! Refresh yourself on the basics behind sleep!
http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm
Understanding sleep: By Melinda Smith, Lawrence Robinson, and Robert Segal
It’s not just the number of hours in bed that is important—it’s the quality of those hours of sleep. If you’re giving yourself plenty of time for sleep, but you’re still having trouble waking up in the morning or staying alert all day, you may not be spending enough time in the different stages of sleep—especially deep sleep and REM sleep. By understanding how the sleep cycles work and the factors that can lead to those cycles being disrupted, you’ll be able to start getting both the quantity and the quality of sleep you need.
Your internal 24-hour sleep-wake cycle, otherwise known as biological clock or circadian rhythm, is regulated by processes in the brain that respond to how long you’ve been awake and the changes between light and dark. At night, your body responds to the loss of daylight by producing melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy. During the day, sunlight triggers the brain to inhibit melatonin production so you feel awake and alert.
This sleep-wake cycle can be disrupted by factors such as nightshift work, traveling across time zones, or irregular sleeping patterns, leaving you feeling groggy, disoriented, and sleepy at inconvenient times. The production of melatonin can also be thrown off when you’re deprived of sunlight during the day or exposed to too much artificial light at night, disrupting the sleep-wake cycle and preventing you from getting the sleep you need.
How many hours of sleep do you need?
| Average Sleep Needs | |
| Age | Hours |
| Newborns (0-2 months) | 12 – 18 |
| Infants (3 months to 1 year) | 14 – 15 |
| Toddlers (1 to 3 years) | 12 – 14 |
| Preschoolers (3 to 5 years) | 11 – 13 |
| School-aged children (5 to 12 years) | 10 – 11 |
| Teens and preteens (12 to 18 years) | 8.5 – 10 |
| Adults (18+) | 7.5 – 9 |
There is a big difference between the amount of sleep you can get by on and the amount you need to function optimally. Just because you’re able to operate on 7 hours of sleep doesn’t mean you wouldn’t feel a lot better and get more done if you spent an extra hour or two in bed. The best way to figure out if you’re meeting your sleep needs is to evaluate how you feel as you go about your day. If you’re logging enough hours, you’ll feel energetic and alert all day long, from the moment you wake up until your regular bedtime.
Think six hours of sleep is enough?
Think again. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco discovered that some people have a gene that enables them to do well on 6 hours of sleep a night. But the gene is very rare, appearing in less than 3% of the population. For the other 97% of us, six hours doesn’t come close to cutting it.