For adults, getting less than seven hours of sleep a night on a regular basis has been linked to health problems, such as weight gain, having a body mass index of 30 or more, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and depression. In a Seattle Times article, incoming AASM President Dr. Watson says that 7 hours is the lower limit for the amount of sleep a healthy adult should sleep per night. Experts generally recommend seven to nine hours a night for healthy adults.
Sleep scientists say new guidelines are needed to take into account a lot of recent research in the field and to reflect that, on average, Americans sleep less than in the past. While sleep requirements vary slightly from person to person, most healthy adults need seven to nine hours of sleep per night to function as well as possible. Children and teens need even more. And despite the idea that our sleep needs decrease with age, most seniors still need at least seven hours of sleep.
Since older adults often have trouble sleeping that long at night, daytime naps can help fill the gap. Seven hours of sleep each night is the ideal amount in middle and old age, research suggests. Your Guide to Healthy Sleep (PDF): Why sleep is important, the stages and cycles of sleep, the dangers of lack of sleep, and how to deal with common sleep problems. Its internal biological clock works on a schedule of approximately 24 hours, controlling the sleep-wake cycle.
If you're recording enough sleep, you'll feel energized and alert throughout the day, from the time you wake up to your usual bedtime. The important thing is not just the number of hours you spend asleep, but the quality of those hours. Those who were six or seven hours old had a lower mortality rate than those who regularly slept eight or more hours or less than four hours. The amount of sleep you need depends on many different factors, such as your age, your genetics, and how well you sleep at night.
Apply expertise in sleep medicine and psychiatry to help people achieve balance and improve performance. The study of nearly 500,000 adults between 38 and 73 years old found that too much and too little sleep were linked to poorer cognitive performance and mental health, including anxiety and depression. What is known is that the brain uses sleep to remove metabolic waste from its structures, including the tonsils, which play an important role in mood, memory and emotions. People who stick to regular sleep schedules, practice good sleep hygiene, and wake up rested are likely to have enough hours.
However, allocating time in your schedule to sleep at least 7 hours can keep you more alert throughout the day. A group that slept eight hours was 12% more likely to die within the six-year period than those who slept seven hours, all things being equal. Worse, sleeping poorly or not getting enough sleep can increase your chances of developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease (10, 11, 12, 1.If you give yourself enough time to sleep but still have trouble waking up in the morning or staying alert all day, you may not be spending enough time on different stages of sleep. Sleep affects your productivity, emotional balance, brain and heart health, immune function, creativity, vitality and even your weight.
