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How many hours of sleep is considered adequate?

How much sleep a person needs will vary from person to person due to age, weight, lifestyle, and overall physical health. That means I can’t tell you exactly how much you yourself may need. However, I can provide a common average most individuals require within certain age ranges.

For babies and toddlers 16-18 hours on and off through the day with toddlers taking regular daytime naps. Babies can be on and off during the night as well, especially newborns.

Preschoolers tend to sleep all night with a short nap in the day and on average sleep around 11 hours per day.

During the schooling years about 10 hours at night is average. Tweens and teens can fluctuate a bit depending on whether they are physically active with sports and such or less active. They often like to catch a couple more hours of rest on the weekend mornings as well.

As adults during the working years, most individuals get an average of 8 hours of sleep a night depending on the type of career or lifestyle they pursue.

The golden years are generally after you retire from your chosen profession. During this time it’s not uncommon to sleep only about 5-6 hours at night combined with an occasional nap or rest period during the day.

Continuous Inadequate Sleep Side Effects

Poor emotional wellness
Not getting enough quality rest can cause you to become moody because of the stress of trying to handle everything while feeling exhausted. In the end, you become anxious and then it leads to sadness and depression.

Weakened physical wellness
Your physical body as well gets tired out from the continued lack of adequate sleep. When this happens your immune system becomes low and your body has trouble fighting off common viruses. The next thing you know you start feeling unwell and you will stay sick longer if you continue to not get the sleep and rest your body needs.

Risk of diabetes
Some people have a habit of only sleeping about 5 hours a night and never allow themselves to have a night of good quality sleep. People who do this on a continuous basis have a much higher chance of developing diabetes. When this happens you run the risk of needing insulin needles every day and being on a restricted diet.

Trouble conceiving
Women who are hoping to have a baby, really need to make sure to get good-quality sleep. Without it, their reproductive hormones don’t get properly produced making them infertile.

Greater chance of obesity
Not getting enough sleep can disrupt your digestive system which can result in you having a less-than-efficient metabolism. Not digesting and metabolizing what you eat properly can result in gaining weight especially if you are consuming fatty foods and sugary products to give you quick energy while staying up late and getting up early.

Decreased sex drive
Being tired all the time from burning the candle at both ends makes us moody and miserable. This causes many couples to spend less intimate time together. Or they’re just not in the mood and too tired.

Increased heart issues
Staying up late and getting up early to try and accomplish more can have a profound effect on your heart. Add stress to the mix and your blood pressure goes up. Anxiety makes your heart beat faster. Overdo it too long and you risk heart inflammation and even possibly a heart attack.

Don’t Drive Drowsy

For those of you that travel, burning the candle at both ends is even more dangerous. Did you know, according to global statics online, ten to thirty percent of traffic accidents are the result of fatigue drivers, worldwide?

Don’t become a statistic. Even though I understand once in a while you might be inclined to burn the candle at both ends by staying up too late and having to get up early the next morning. Make sure to never allow it to become a habit. You only get to live your life once so make sure to get your rest and sleep so you can enjoy it the best you can fully awake.

Feel free to like and share. I got up really early this morning so I’m going to head back to bed now to get fully rested for the day. Thanks for reading and have a great day.