No matter what age group you belong to or your work schedule, sleep is equally essential for every human on this planet. Sleeping doesn’t mean sending your body into hibernation and shutting all processes down. It’s just the opposite. Your body is active and buzzing with those metabolic juices once you close your eyes. Sleep time is when your body metabolises, assimilates, rebuilds detoxifies and, most importantly, grows.

So, the next time you think of sacrificing your sleep for whatever reason you consider more important, you are just affecting your health. Being sleep-deprived will not only drain you of energy physically, but also make a mess out of your mental health. So how many hours should we sleep? What are the factors that decide healthy sleep duration? Well, get comfortable because we are here to explain it all.

There’s No One Fit for All

The duration of a healthy sleep varies from person to person. These are several factors that needs to be considered. However, some standardised timings have been suggested by experts depending on age groups. Take a look:

• Older adults (65+): 7–8 hours
• Adults (18–64 years): 7–9 hours
• Teenagers (14–17 years): 8–10 hours
• School children (6–13 years): 9–11 hours
• Pre-schoolers (3–5 years): 10–13 hours (including naps)
• Toddlers (1–2 years): 11–14 hours (including naps)
• Infants (4–12 months): 12–15 hours (including naps)
• New-borns (0–3 months): 14–17 hours

These timings are not carved in stone. Sleeping time may vary depending on several other factors.

Quality of Sleep

Quality over quantity is true to some extent when it comes to getting proper sleep. While it’s natural for our sleep quality to vary throughout the night, we must take the necessary steps to compensate for lost sleep.

If you wake up from an eight-hour-long slumber still feeling tired, it’s probably because the quality of your sleep was poor. Your body did not get the amount of resting time that was needed. However, if you have sound sleep, then even a six-hour sleeping time can suffice, having you wake up feeling fresh as a daisy.

Differences in Genetic Makeup

Genetic mutations can directly affect your sleeping schedule. This is highly subjective and cannot be generalised. While some people with a specific type of genetic makeup may find 6 hours of daily sleep refreshing and nourishing, others may require an average of eight hours to feel equally satisfied.

Sleep deprivation or lack of good quality sleep can affect some people more than others, depending on their genetics. However, genes aren’t something we can control. We can’t possibly determine the perfect duration of sleep that we require based on our genetic makeup. So, the only way of knowing is observing how your body reacts to a certain amount of sleep. Are you feeling drained of energy right after waking up? It’s a visible indicator that your body needs more rest. Are you feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world? There you go, you’ve found your ideal sleep duration!

There Are Consequences of Sacrificing Your Sleep

Sleep is the first thing we sacrifice whenever life gets too busy or too much on our plates. All the extra time you need has to come out of your sleep time. This is one of the biggest mistakes that most people make. Sleeping isn’t optional.

Studies show that sleep deprivation not only makes you feel tired but accentuates poor decision-making, less creativity, along with an increased chance of motor vehicle accidents. This is because poor sleeping schedules adversely affect your cognitive performance. Along with negative moods, and dwindling productivity, it can also lead to chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity and heart disease.

Wrapping Up

A sleep-deprived lifestyle will affect your body in every possible way. So, it’s time to stop treating sleep like an option and giving your body the rest it needs. Get in touch with our team of experts at Plus Fitness today, and take one step at a time on your journey towards a healthy lifestyle.