How much should a person sleep per day

Night rest is a vital necessity for every person. People may not sleep for very long, after five to seven days, harmful processes in the body begin to occur, which can even cause death. Resting at night is even more important than eating. How many hours should an adult sleep? How to prepare for sleep? What are the consequences of lack of sleep? All these questions can be answered by reading this article.

Sleep standards with a table of age norms of sleep

How much sleep do you need? For each age category of people there is a norm. Surely many people know that the time of night rest for an adult is approximately 8 hours a day. Many scientists confirm that children need much more time for a normal rest, and older people need about 7 hours or less to wake up refreshed. A lot of research has been conducted to answer the question: how much time do adults and children need to sleep. Here is a table that shows the number of hours of sleep per day for each category of people:

1. Infants - around 3-4 p.m.
2. Children under one year - 13-14 hours.
3. Children 1-2 years old - 12-13 hours.
4. Children under 5 years old - 10-12 hours.
5. Schoolchildren - 9-11 a.m.
6. Boys and girls 14-17 years old - 8-10 hours.
7. Youth 18-25 years old - 8-9 hours.
8. People 26-65 years old - 7-9 hours.
9. The elderly from 65 years old - 7-8 hours or less.

These are just approximate figures showing what is the standard sleep rate for an adult and for a child. However, in each individual case and each individual person may have their own characteristics of the body that affect sleep time, so the above norm may not be indicative for different people. For example, Napoleon slept only 4 hours, and Einstein spent more than 10 hours every night on a night's rest.

Sleep phases

There are different phases of falling asleep and sleep phases. Each cycle usually takes about an hour and a half. Being in the same cycle, a person alternates between slow-wave and REM sleep phases. And before falling into deep sleep, there is also a falling asleep phase. For each of us, the phase of non-REM sleep takes much longer than fast sleep. Usually, the phase of non-REM sleep takes about 1.5 hours, and being in the phase of REM sleep, a person spends from 2 to 30 minutes. Thanks to modern technology, doctors and scientists have divided the nightly rest of adults into 5 separate phases, in each of which the brain is in a certain state:

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1. Sleepy phase or zero phase.
2. Sleep phase.
3. Not very deep sleep, when sigma waves act on the brain.
4. and 5. Phases of non-REM sleep, when a person is in a phase of slow sleep, he sleeps the most soundly, in these two phases delta waves are called manifest. Slow-wave sleep cycles account for approximately 75% of the total night's rest. In this phase, a person begins to breathe less often, his heartbeat decreases, there is practically no eye movement, the muscles completely relax. It is in the cycle of slow sleep that a person recovers, his cells and tissues are rehabilitated, and the energy spent during the working day is restored.

Research on how sleep affects humans

Scientists have conducted many different studies on the effect of night rest on human health and well-being, as a result of these studies, the following conclusions were obtained:

• lack of sleep time leads to the fact that a person's memory is disturbed and deteriorates. Experiments were carried out with bees, they deliberately violated the rest period, as a result they began to get lost in space, none of the bees was able to repeat the flight route that the bees had studied the previous day. Therefore, non-compliance with the norm of sleep time causes lethargy of the mind, a slow reaction and a deterioration in the perception of the surrounding world and various events;
• lack of sleep increases appetite. Many scientists have confirmed this fact, studies have shown that if you don’t sleep enough, then stress arises, very similar to that which appears in an overworked or not rested person, and because of stress, people begin to eat more, obesity occurs;
• lack of full sleep, when there is not enough normal, good rest, reduces creativity. Often people in a dream come to understand some problems or resolve difficult life situations. For example, Mendeleev dreamed of a system of chemical elements;
• if a bright light is turned on in the room in the evening, then because of this, a person falls asleep later, his sleep phases become shorter, and this often causes early awakening.

Scientists have found that lack of sleep causes irritability and stress, and as a result of constant stress, a person gradually develops depression - a dangerous disease that must be treated.

Sleep deficiency - how does it accumulate?

If a person does not comply with the age norms of sleep and sleeps less than expected, then the body accumulates a lack of sleep, leading to a decrease in performance. If every day for a week there is little sleep, and on weekends you sleep off, spending a couple of hours more on rest at night, then your strength will not be fully restored. A person will want to sleep, he will be tired and overwhelmed, because the lack of sleep will only decrease for a couple of hours, and will not disappear completely.
An adult should rest at night 8 hours a day, and he sleeps for 6 hours, then every day the lack of sleep accumulates for 2 hours. After 5 days, this deficit will be 10 hours, and this debt must be paid back to your body, either immediately or gradually. If you do not compensate for this time, then it is impossible to feel completely rested, vigorous and full of energy.

How to prepare for sleep

In many ways, the duration of sleep depends on how a person prepares for it. To fall asleep quickly and sleep soundly, you need to follow these recommendations:

• before going to bed, do not eat too much. Dinner should be three to four hours before the night's rest. In addition, at night it is better not to eat fatty and very high-calorie foods;
• when it is time to sleep, it is advisable to take a contrast shower, thanks to which you can relieve tension and fatigue that has accumulated during the working day;
• no need to watch disturbing news, it is advisable to turn off the TV, computer and Internet at night;
• before going to bed, for some time (15-20 minutes) you need to open the windows in the bedroom wide open to ventilate it, thanks to the fresh air you can fall asleep very quickly, sleep soundly and wake up cheerful;
• so that there is no shortage of night rest, you need to sleep in a dark and quiet room;
• you can fall asleep faster thanks to a relaxing massage of the cervical and lumbar region, and you can also massage the feet;
• sleep better without clothes, naked;
• you can’t allow yourself to worry or worry in the evening, because anxiety greatly interferes with sleep, because of them insomnia develops;
• at night, you can drink a soothing herbal tea based on valerian, mint, lemon balm and motherwort.

What to eat before bed

Sleep deprivation often occurs due to the fact that a person takes the wrong food at night. During the day, it is necessary to properly compose a diet and leave light, low-calorie foods for the evening meal. It is worth remembering that you should not go to bed hungry, because this can harm your health and this will cause you to wake up early.
At night, it is advisable to eat such dishes and foods that would not burden the stomach and intestines. Nutritionists and doctors advise eating vegetable salads, various seafood, egg dishes, chicken, and sour-milk products at night.

How much sleep do you need to wake up refreshed

Many people sleep long enough, but do not get enough sleep. How much sleep to wake up refreshed? If an adult rests at night for 8 hours, he sleeps well. But if the rest is interrupted, for example, due to the fact that the alarm clock rang very early, then most likely the person will be lethargic and tired. The best time for healthy waking up is during REM sleep, when a person is dreaming.
How much sleep does an adult need? In order to wake up cheerful, and also so that there is no shortage of rest, it is necessary to correctly calculate the rate. You need to focus on 4.5 hours, 6 or 7.5 hours of night rest. That is, for example, if a person went to bed, fell asleep at 23:00, in order to feel cheerful during the day, he needs to wake up either at 3:30 at night, or at 5 in the morning, or at 6:30 in the morning. Often, even if you do not set an alarm for this time, the body wakes up on its own during these hours, when the REM phase is coming to an end.

What often leads to lack of sleep?

If the duration of a person’s sleep is insufficient for a long time, then this will necessarily affect health and well-being. Chronic sleep deprivation leads to:

• weakened immunity;
• occurrence of heart disease;
• low performance;
• weight gain;
• chronic insomnia;
• frequent depression;
• decrease in concentration, vision, memory.

When a man sleeps less than the prescribed norm, then testosterone is produced in insufficient quantities. Because of this, a man loses stamina and strength, his fat deposits increase, and prostatitis appears. When a person has little time for a night's rest, and rarely gets to sleep during the day, irritability, unreasonable outbursts of anger occur, blood pressure increases, and the digestive system is disrupted. Sleep deficiency is a very dangerous problem that leads to disruption of biological rhythms, swelling, severe fatigue, and as a result, the help of a specialist doctor is needed.

Is long sleep good for you?

Long sleep, when a person sleeps several hours more than the norm, leads to various problems, such as:

• headaches, back pain;
• obesity;
• weakness, depression;
• cardiovascular diseases.

Is it bad for adults to sleep too much? Yes, because because of this, he will be tired all the time, the biorhythms of the body will be disturbed. Scientists say that prolonged sleep (9-10 hours a day or more) leads to hormonal disruptions, and even reduces life expectancy!

How to learn to wake up early?

There can be many reasons for waking up early, if you wake up early, you can have time to do a lot more things. In addition, performance in the morning is much better than in the evening. How to wake up early? Necessary:

• do not go to bed too late in the evening, preferably at 22:00, maybe a little later;
• sleep in a room that is neither cold nor hot, the temperature should be about 20-22 degrees;
• it is advisable to set the alarm clock at a certain distance from you, which must be overcome in order to turn it off;
• ask friends or relatives to call early;
• after waking up early, you need to take a shower, drink coffee, it is advisable to do exercises;
• in order to get up early into a habit, you need to wake up in the morning at the same time, for 10-15 days.

Do you need to sleep during the day?

Is it good for adults to sleep during the day? This is directly related to night rashes. If you go to bed very late, it will be useful to take a little nap during the day. Daytime rest should be light and not very long, 15-20 minutes is enough for the body to turn off and reboot, but at the same time it does not have time to go into a period of slow sleep. Do not sleep during the day longer than this time.
Do you need to sleep during the day? It is necessary, but such a rest should be an additional rest. Waking up during the day will be quick and easy, only when the body has not had time to understand that it is sleeping. But if a person sleeps for 40 minutes or more in the daytime, then it will be much harder for him to get up, he will be overwhelmed and tired, because the body will have time to go into the phase of slow sleep.
If you can afford to sleep longer during the day, then you need to go through a period of slow rest, after which you can easily wake up. To go through this phase, you need to sleep during the day for about an hour and a half. However, this is not a rule for everyone, because each organism is individual, moreover, the duration of night rest has a significant impact on daytime rest.

How much sleep do you need

Each of us is a unique personality, so each of us has our own noma of night rest. Everyone needs to determine this norm by trial and error and stick to it in the future. How much sleep do you need per day? You need to rest at night as much as the body requires in order to wake up well-rested. The average rate is 2-9 hours a day. However, if you want to sleep more than 12 hours a day, then you need to consult a doctor.
How much sleep does a person need? There are experts who believe that a person wants to sleep more than is actually necessary, it is enough to sleep about five hours a day and feel great. But to listen to the opinion of these experts or not is a personal matter for everyone. Lack of sleep can adversely affect health and even life expectancy. Therefore, it is better not to cut the time of night rest.