How Much Sleep is the Right Amount?

Ah sleep, it is a normal human need.  Even in stressful times, we all need sleep, how much is enough?  Can we sleep too much? How do I know what I need?  These are all questions that revolve around our natural bodies, and yes humans are part of nature.  There has been some study of what the right amount of sleep is, here are some generalizations.

The amount of sleep you actually need varies by age.  Infants will sleep 16 to 18 hours a day.  Their bodies are still forming, their minds are growing.  To use a computer analogy:  the operating system is loaded, now additional software is needed to help it function efficiently.  And that's what happens as we sleep.  Just like the computer needs to be rebooted occasionally, so to do our minds and bodies.  But sleep doesn't come with the push of a button.

Preschoolers need less sleep than new borns, probably 10 to 12 hours per day is the range most would consider right.  Again, they are still forming, learning new things constantly; and their bodies and minds need time to process these new things.  In an editorial aside, I find it strange that parents deprive these children of sleep by having them out after about 8 PM, you cannot treat them as adults, they need more sleep than you.  But go into your local mall, almost any day of the year and between 8 and close there are strollers galore, please consider what this does to your child's development.

School age finds another drop in the total amount of sleep children need.  Approximately 9 hours per day is what nature prefers.  Their minds are better able to assimilate information, body growth has slowed a bit.  Now is the time that sleep hygiene should be most important.  We learn from our parents and grandparents habits that can make or break our lives.  A consistent and enforced bed time should be one of these habits!  Failure to learn good sleep habits can doom the child to a lifetime of sleep problems an developmental issues.  Help them avoid these problems by being proactive.

Teens still require more sleep than adults, but they are testing boundaries.  They push the envelope on staying up to play video games, or watch TV, or even read or other hobbies.  It is still important to encourage them to keep a regular bed time, critically important.  Sleeping in on Saturday, while enjoyable for them, is not great hygiene, or habit for latter life.

Adults require from 7 to 9 hours per night of good sleep to recuperate from the previous day, and function at peak performance.  Did you know that before the electric light was invented Americans slept about 9 hours a day, in the century since our sleep has slowly eroded to about 6 or 7 hours on average.  I can hear now, there is some one out there saying "I do just fine on my 5 hours of sleep a night."  And perhaps they can fool themselves for a long while.  However, eventually sleep deprivation will cause health issues not unlike over eating or other activities we do that our body doesn't particularly like.

The key for all these separate groups is to keep a consistent schedule.  We don't always do that.  Why are Mondays so tough?  Most people tend to keep a schedule through the work week, but will stray from it on the weekends.  That screws up the internal biological clock, which will try to reset to the new schedule, only to have it change again on Monday, simply put our bodies crave consistency, when they don't get it they revolt, hence Monday morning.  If you want to feel better on Monday morning, try keeping a consistent schedule all 7 days of the week.  Maybe experiment for one month, see if it matters.

Sleep hygiene involves more than the total hours of sleep, but that is a matter for a future blog.  We can sleep for life, we can sleep better.  Listen to your body, it won't steer you wrong!

Sleep Well!