Babies, young children, and teens
School-age children (ages 6-13) need 9-11 hours a day. Teenagers (ages 14-17) need about 8-10 hours each day. Most adults need 7 to 9 hours, although some people may need as few as 6 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day. Older adults (ages 65 and older) need 7-8 hours of sleep each day.
Americans get the least amount asleep around age 40, researchers found in a new study. Medical College of Georgia (MCG) investigators used data from a nationally representative sample of 11,279 participants aged 6 and older, each of whom wore a device on their nondominant wrist that measured movement and gauged sleep.
As a general rule, though, most health professionals recommend that younger children get somewhere between 9 and 11 hours of sleep each night. Teenagers usually need between 8 and 10 hours of sleep nightly. This is obviously more than the 7 to 9 hours most adults sleep each night.
Older adults need about the same amount of sleep as all adults—7 to 9 hours each night. But, older people tend to go to sleep earlier and get up earlier than they did when they were younger.
There was a 65% higher death rate for people who regularly slept less than 5 hours on all nights, compared with people who regularly slept 6 to 7 hours per night. There was a 25% higher death rate for people who averaged 8 hours or more of sleep on all nights.
“Teenagers are going through a second developmental stage of cognitive maturation,” explains Crocetti. Additional sleep supports their developing brain, as well as physical growth spurts.
Sleep patterns tend to change as you age. Most people find that aging causes them to have a harder time falling asleep. They wake up more often during the night and earlier in the morning. Total sleep time stays the same or is slightly decreased (6.5 to 7 hours per night).
Sleep requirements stabilize in early adult life, around the age of 20. Individuals vary in their sleep needs but most adults require between 7 and 9 hours a night to feel properly refreshed and function at their best the next day. Many try to get away with less sleep.
According to their internal body clock, most older adults need to go to sleep around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. and wake up at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. Many people fight their natural inclination to sleep and choose to go to bed several hours later instead.
Sleep requirements stabilize in early adult life, around the age of 20. Individuals vary in their sleep needs but most adults require between 7 and 9 hours a night to feel properly refreshed and function at their best the next day.
How Much Sleep Is Too Much? Sleep needs can vary from person to person, but in general, experts recommend that healthy adults get an average of 7 to 9 hours per night of shuteye. If you regularly need more than 8 or 9 hours of sleep per night to feel rested, it might be a sign of an underlying problem, Polotsky says.
A single night of no sleep will not stunt growth. But over the long term, a person's growth may be affected by not getting the full amount of sleep. That's because growth hormone is normally released during sleep.
The body releases the sleep hormone melatonin later at night in teens than in kids and adults. This resets the body's internal sleep clock so that teens fall asleep later at night and wake up later in the morning. Most teens just aren't sleepy enough for bed before 11 p.m.
Teenagers' bodies are growing at the fastest rate since they were toddlers, and the hormonal changes that are taking place are huge. Another normal reason for seemingly perpetual sleepiness is a biological shift in the circadian — the Body Clock. During puberty, the normal sleep patterns shift to later.
Fu says researchers have found that short sleepers tend to be more optimistic, more energetic and better multitaskers. They also have a higher pain threshold, don't suffer from jet lag and some researchers believe they may even live longer.
Researchers analyzed death certificate data for 14,440 men and 16,390 women aged 25 and up. According to researchers, an additional inch increase in height generated a 2.2 percent higher risk of death from all causes for men, and a 2.5 percent higher risk of death from all causes for women.
Folks who stay up late and struggle to wake in the morning have a 10 percent higher risk of dying sooner than so-called "morning larks" who are early to bed and early to rise, said lead researcher Kristin Knutson.
Improved sleep quality
Sleeping naked certainly removes any possibility of pajama-induced overheating interfering with a good night's rest. It's the absolute final move in shedding layers to stay cool. “There's no question that cooler is better than warmer for overall sleeping,” says Dr. Drerup.
Boredom, depression, chronic pain and/or nutritional deficiencies can be some of the underlying causes that account for excessive daytime sleeping. Medications can also be a problem.
As people age, they tend to sleep more lightly than when they were younger. Waking up during the night due to achy joints or the need to use the restroom becomes commonplace. Many seniors compensate for this lost sleep by catching a restorative nap during the day. That's normal.
Not everyone needs the same amount of sleep, but on average adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep each day. Babies and young children need much more sleep, but from young adulthood sleep needs remain relatively stable.
According to researchers at the Loughborough University U.K.-based Sleep Research Center, 1 women do use their brains more than men – so much more so that, yes, they do require more sleep.