How much sleep is necessary for you The truth is revealed by experts.
Our needs for sleep vary over the course of our lives. Newborns require between 14 and 17 hours the most.
Ankush Pandey
Highlights
- Individuals and their ages have different sleep needs.
- Getting a good night's sleep is essential to feeling refreshed.
- Hormonal changes may cause women to require extra sleep.
If you're reading this, you probably slept last night. However, do you feel rested?
It's a crucial question to think about, according to experts.
Although you may require more or less than eight hours of sleep per night, the majority of us sleep for a third of our lives. Throughout life, the amount of sleep required varies; infants and children require more sleep, while adults 65 and older can get by on just under seven or nine hours.
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Here are the opinions of medical professionals and sleep scientists regarding how much sleep you actually need and whether gender matters.
Sleep quality over quantity
Even though sleep is so important to our health, it is still a mystery.
"The reasons aren't totally clear, but it's something we all do that's essential," Stanford University sleep specialist Dr. Rafael Pelayo said. Sleeping causes amazing things to happen. It's our most instinctive kind of self-care.
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The majority of people get seven to nine hours, and according to Molly Atwood, a behavioral sleep medicine doctor at Johns Hopkins, that group has the lowest correlation with health issues.
The risk of health issues increases as people either sleep less than six hours or more than nine hours on average, but each person is unique, according to Atwood.
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When determining the amount of sleep you require, it's critical to consider its quality. "The goal is to wake up feeling rejuvenated; that's what you really want to do," Pelayo stated.
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Pelayo stated, "If someone tells me they sleep a lot but wake up exhausted, there's a problem." "Your favorite restaurant shouldn't leave you feeling peckish."
How much sleep we need changes
Our needs for sleep vary over the course of our lives. Newborns require between 14 and 17 hours the most.
According to Atwood, "we do need a lot more sleep when we are babies and children because we are growing so rapidly."
Seven to nine hours of sleep is what the National Sleep Foundation advises most adults between the ages of 26 and 64 to receive. Individuals aged 65 and beyond may receive slightly less, while young persons aged 16 to 25 may receive slightly more.
Humans go through different stages of sleep approximately every 90 minutes. "More of the cycle is slow wave sleep, or deep sleep, which is essential to repairing and restoring the body," Atwood said of the first part of the night. "Growth hormone" is also released at this time.
Rapid-eye movement sleep, sometimes known as dream sleep, takes up a larger portion of the sleep cycle in the later hours of the night. This type of sleep is crucial for learning and memory consolidation, which is the process by which short-term memory is converted into long-term memory.
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According to her, children spend roughly half of the night in "deep sleep." Atwood claimed that because our bodies don't require the same level of restoration and repair during puberty, that decreases.
Around adolescence, another intriguing development is the emergence of gender-based variations in sleep patterns.
Do women need more sleep than men?
Women do, on average, receive a little more sleep than males, but research does not indicate that they require more sleep, according to Atwood.
From an early age, it begins. Despite having similar sleep requirements, teenage girls appear to sleep less than teenage boys, according to Pelayo. Insomnia is another issue that teenage girls report more often.
Allison Harvey, a clinical psychologist and professor who studies sleep at UC Berkeley, stated that women who become first-time moms tend to care for their newborns more frequently during the night, which results in less sleep.
The amount and quality of sleep that women get throughout pregnancy and menopause may also be influenced by hormones.
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Dr. Mithri Junna, a sleep specialist neurologist at the Mayo Clinic, stated that women may experience worsening in their sleep throughout menopause, as seen by an increase in the frequency and duration of nightly awakenings.
Women could also require extra sleep in the days leading up to their menstrual cycle, according to Atwood.
She stated, "Your body is definitely telling you that you need more sleep at certain times." “Listening is crucial.”
When to seek help sleeping
Feeling irritated, lethargic, and unfocused will be signs that you aren't receiving enough sleep. Those mild symptoms have the potential to develop into major issues or even fatal ones over time.
"Your risk of depression increases if you don't get enough sleep or if you have untreated sleep apnea or insomnia," Atwood stated. "You are more susceptible to cardiovascular problems, such as hypertension, heart attacks, and strokes. Your immune system isn't working well. You are more likely to develop Alzheimer's.
If you're obtaining the required amount of sleep each night but still feel exhausted when you get up, you may want to see your primary care physician. They can rule out other medical disorders that could interfere with your sleep, according to Atwood. However, if issues continue, consulting a sleep specialist may be beneficial.
