Sleep is an important and complex process that occurs in the body. About a third of his life, a person spends in a state of sleep. It is necessary for the renewal of the forces spent during the day. In a dream, a person’s physical and spiritual health is restored. How much does an adult need to sleep?
Sleep duration
The necessary duration of sleep for an adult is a relative concept. Sleeping a day is recommended for at least 8 hours. In general, these are statistical data, and not in every case they correspond to reality.
Someone can sleep for 6 hours and feel great, while someone is missing 10 hours.
The duration of a night's rest can be affected by age, well-being, physical activity, and other factors.
In the first year of their baby's life, parents lose up to 2 hours of sleep per day, which is about 700 hours per year.
Depending on age, the need for sleep changes, so it is recommended to sleep:
- newborns - at least 15 hours a day;
- children under 2 years old - 11-14 hours;
- children from 2 to 5 years old - 10-11 hours;
- children from 5 to 13 years old - 9-11 hours;
- adolescents over 17 years of age - 8-10 hours;
- adult sleep - 8 hours;
- people over 65 years - 7-8 hours.
These data are considered averaged, so how much you need to sleep per day, each person decides for himself. The body knows how many hours of night rest it needs. A man can only listen carefully to himself.
The norm of sleep in the elderly is constantly decreasing, the periods of sleep and drowsiness are changing, the duration of night rest is shortened. Therefore, they have a need for daytime sleep.
According to scientists who conducted studies on the duration of sleep, it turned out that the longest people live who sleep from 6.5 to 7.5 hours a day.
Healthy Sleep Principles
How much does an adult need to sleep? In order for the sleep to benefit the body, you must follow these rules:
- A person lays down and gets up better at the same time. If you disrupt the routine, this can lead to sleep disorder, irritability, mood swings and, in some cases, to the disease.
- After sleeping, it is better to get out of bed immediately. If a person falls asleep again, this will lead to a deterioration in well-being.
- The time before a night's rest should pass in a calm environment, without activity and fuss. You can come up with a kind of ritual aimed at preparing for sleep.
- It is not recommended to sleep during the day so that there are no problems with falling asleep in the evening.
- There should not be a computer or TV in the bedroom. Time spent in bed should be spent on a night's rest.
- Do not eat heavy food at bedtime. The last intake of such food should not be later than 2 hours before bedtime. And the best option is 4 hours. You can, for example, eat an apple or drink a glass of kefir.
- Exercise during the day will help you fall asleep quickly in the evening.
- Before going to bed, it is better not to drink coffee or drink alcohol or smoke.
Having given up several bad habits, you can get a healthy and sound sleep as a result.
Do I need a nap?
Is it good for an adult to sleep during the day? A short nap, not more than 30 minutes a day, helps reduce the risk of heart disease. A person who sleeps 3 times a week during the day feels an improvement in mood, attention and memory.
Useful daytime rest for people who do not get enough sleep at night. A duration of sleep of more than 30 minutes can lead to difficulties that occur when falling asleep in the evening.
One category of people receives only positive moments from a day's rest, while another category has sleep disorders. In this case, rest during the day is better to exclude.
What can cause lack of sleep?
How many hours should an adult sleep? A systematic deviation from the required norm of sleep can lead to poor health. Attempts to compensate for insufficient nightly rest on weekends only worsen the situation. Chronic lack of sleep can cause:
- decreased immunity;
- poor performance;
- the occurrence of diseases of the heart and blood vessels;
- overweight;
- insomnia
- depressive state;
- impaired attention and vision.
How much does an adult need to sleep per day? In men, lack of sleep can lead to a decrease in testosterone production. This, in turn, leads to a loss of strength and endurance, an increase in adipose tissue and the onset of prostatitis.
Weight gain is due to the need to replenish energy with high-calorie foods. With lack of sleep, cortisol is produced, which is called the stress hormone. And people often get stuck in a nervous breakdown.
With insufficient sleep, a person is very often visited by anger, irritability and a depressed state. First of all, from the lack of night rest, the nervous system suffers.
This condition can cause an increase in blood pressure and disruption of the digestive tract. Often on the face of a person you can see the consequences of sleep deprivation in the form of dark circles under the eyes and puffiness.
An insufficient amount of night rest can lead to a violation of human biorhythms. Some changes in the body lead to irreversible processes that a person will not be able to solve independently. In this case, you need the help of a specialist.
Is prolonged sleep helpful?
It is known that lack of sleep adversely affects human health. A long sleep of 9-10 hours also does not bring benefits to the body, because the adult's sleep rate is about 8 hours. Because of this, there are health problems of the following nature:
- weight gain;
- pain in the head and back;
- depressive state;
- heart and vascular disease.
When a person sleeps a lot, he feels constant fatigue. This condition also leads to a violation of the biorhythms of the body.
Overspill can cause hormonal failure. In this state, few hormones are produced for the normal functioning of the body. In a large amount, the production of sleep hormones occurs.
Is it harmful for an adult to sleep a lot? Scientists have found that increasing the duration of sleep leads to a reduction in life expectancy.
Eating before bedtime
The quality of sleep is largely influenced by the time of eating. A person should rationally distribute the diet during the day and leave the right foods for an evening meal.
The existence of restrictions on food intake after 18 o’clock in the evening is not completely correct, because going to bed hungry is harmful for health and for the duration of sleep.
Before a night's rest, it is better to eat light foods that will not create a feeling of heaviness in the stomach. For dinner, you can use cottage cheese, chicken meat, eggs, seafood, vegetable salad.
How to sleep
There is an opinion that it is better to sleep head first to the north. This assumption is supported by the Chinese doctrine of Feng Shui, according to which the electromagnetic field of a person is presented in the form of a compass: the head is north and the legs are south.
Therefore, if a person sleeps his head to the north, then his sleep will be strong and healthy, and it will be easy to wake up.
How to learn to wake up early?
When a person wakes up in the early morning, he can do a lot of urgent things, because working capacity at this time is the highest.
Initially, you should determine: how much an adult needs to sleep per day? Depends on what time to go to bed in the evening, in order to wake up in the morning in a cheerful mood.
When the sleep schedule is determined, the person will determine the motivation for an early rise. Some people use this time to solve production problems, while others use it to play sports.
How to wake up properly:
- it will be easier to wake up in a room in which the optimal temperature regime is observed;
- You can wake up with an alarm clock, to which you must overcome a certain distance;
- some people ask family or friends for help in waking up early with a phone call;
- after lifting, you should take a shower and drink a cup of coffee, which over time will develop into a certain ritual;
- awakening must occur at the same time.
The habit of early awakening can form within 2 weeks and will help to solve previously planned tasks.
How much does an adult have to sleep in order to sleep?
Considering the harm from lack of sleep or prolonged sleep, we can conclude that the rate of sleep for each person is individual. If a day he sleeps no more than 5 hours, while he feels great, then do not worry.
It is important to listen to your body. One of the conditions: after a night's rest, you need to feel alert and fresh.
Sometimes life situations arise when a person can sleep for several hours a day and feel great. After some time, he returns to his usual sleep and rest routine.
During illness, the duration of sleep increases. Doctors advise sleeping more during this period.
Such a concept as the quality of sleep, largely depends on the duration and time when a person falls asleep. It is well known that people are divided into "larks" and "owls."
Everyone can choose for themselves the optimal sleep mode, in which he will get enough sleep and feel good.
The sleep rate for women is at least 8 hours, and for men, 6.5 to 7 hours is enough to stay awake.
To determine how much and when to sleep, each person must independently for himself, then he will not have problems associated with poor health.