How Much Sleep Do You Need? A Guide to Getting the Recommended Amount of Sleep

Getting the right amount of sleep is essential for your health and wellbeing. The National Sleep Foundation guidelines1 recommend that healthy adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night, while infants, young children, adolescents, and people over the age of 65 should get 7-8 hours of sleep. The amount of sleep a child needs varies from person to person and depends on certain factors, such as age. Getting the recommended amount of sleep on a regular basis is associated with better health in children, including improved attention, behaviour, learning, memory, ability to control emotions, quality of life, and mental and physical health.

Excessive sleep has also been linked to obesity, diabetes and mental health problems. The third stage is “deep sleep” when brain waves slow down and it is harder to wake up. People who did not get enough sleep before riding a driving simulator or performing a hand-eye coordination task performed as well as or worse than people who had been given alcohol. Newborns do not yet have an internal biological clock or circadian rhythm, so their sleep patterns are not related to light and night cycles.

Adolescents should get 8-10 hours of sleep per night, while younger children need even more sleep according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). Establishing healthy sleep habits is a primary goal during this period as babies become more social and their sleep patterns become more adult-like. At around 6 weeks of age, babies begin to settle down and you may notice more regular sleep patterns emerging. However, for many adolescents social pressures can interfere with getting adequate quantity and quality of sleep.

For adults, sleeping less than seven hours a night on a regular basis has been linked to poor health such as weight gain, having a body mass index of 30 or more, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke and depression. If you are concerned about how much sleep you or your child is getting, talk to your doctor or your child's doctor. Drowsiness is the brain's last step before falling asleep so drowsy driving can - and often does - lead to disaster.