Sleep is one of the holy grails of feeling good each day. Get too much and you may feel groggy and sluggish. Get too little and you may feel irritable, depressed, anxious, unable to focus and plain old sleepy In fact, a growing body of evidence shows that sleep problems increase one’s risk for chronic conditions such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
So, how much sleep is just right? The National Sleep Foundation released a new study that reviewed the body of evidence on sleep. A panel of 18 experts, including medical doctors from a variety of disciplines and human development researchers, evaluated 320 research papers on sleep duration. Then they crafted a set of recommendations regarding how much sleep people need at each stage of the lifecycle – from infants to older adults.
These recommendations are illustrated in the graphic at the left. For each age group, there is a range of recommended amount of sleep.
The evidence shows that many adults in the U.S. don’t get enough sleep for a variety of reasons. Most often, we short-change our sleep-time for other tasks or activities. We can push through with less than optimal amounts of sleep because we use stimulants like coffee and energy drinks. In addition, modern conveniences, such as alarm clocks and external lights (including those from electronic devices), interfere with natural wake and sleep cycles, which can make it more difficult to get enough sleep.
Even if you’re getting the recommended amount of sleep, the Sleep Foundation suggests that you ask yourself some questions to determine the proper amount of sleep for your body.
- How much sleep helps you to feel productive, healthy and happy?
- Do you have health issues such as being overweight? Are you at risk for any disease?
- Do you depend on caffeine to get you through the day?
- Do you feel sleepy when driving?
Their take-home message is that making sleep a priority will help to improve your mood and protect your health.
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