How Many Hours of Sleep Does An Adult Need?
To me the ability to sleep and the duration should be one that comes naturally, it’s one’s response to nature in an attempt to refresh, restore and reinvent the body’s systems.
Sleep is part of nature’s way to keep our system functioning at optimal levels.
Sleep comes naturally at any time most often at odd places.
I think we should be more concerned about the quality of our sleep and its ability to reset and refresh our body system than the duration or rather quantity.
How easily you sleep off and the quality of your sleep largely depends on some factors such as depression, mental health, state of mind, family issues, the nature of your work, and work-related issues all play an important role in the quality of your sleep.
Recommended for you:
Depression Ten (10) Natural Ways You Can Treat It.
The 4 Magic Pills That Will Keep You Healthy, Productive and In Good Shape
High Blood Pressure: 10 Simple Ways you can Effectively Lower It
The General Global Believe About Sleeping
The general belief that every adult needs roughly eight hours a night, which in the actual sense isn’t right, it’s like following an industry standard.
Understanding the basic function and reason for sleeping which helps your body system and brain repair, restore, refresh, reset and reenergize will save you a lot of trouble and will help you make rightful decisions as regards your sleeping pattern, duration and most importantly quality of sleep.
Sleeping Pattern and Hours of Sleep (Duration)
On natural grounds, your sleeping pattern and duration are often influenced by age generally:
- Infants (ages 0-3 months) need 13-16 hours a day.
- Infants (ages 4-11 months) need 12-15 hours a day
- Toddlers (ages 1-2 years) need about 11-14 hours a day.
- Preschool children (ages 3-5) need 10-13 hours a day.
- 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 for good health.
- Women in the first 3 months of pregnancy often need several more hours of sleep than usual.
Recommended for you:
HAPPINESS: 25 Proven Ways to Be Happy
Causes of Headaches & Simple Tips on How To Manage & Prevent It.
On a natural stance for example infants and toddlers do have several hours of sleep in a day compared to a more stable sleeping pattern of an adult which is roughly around 8 hours.
You’ve heard stories of folks boasting of working long hours without sleeping or resting and of friends bragging about their driving prowess.
Driving long hours nonstop most often finding themselves skipping off the road into the bush, if unlucky to the great beyond.
To be honest, the basic simple truth is, as an adult, if you are feeling sleepy, tired, or exhausted and your natural instincts suggest that you need a rest or sleep find a place to take a nap or sleep, it will save you lots of trouble.
In all honesty, very few people need more than eight hours of sleep regularly. It all depends on the nature of your work, mental health and your general health etc.
For instance, those working in the health sector, military, paramilitary and media that require night shifts already have their natural sleeping pattern disrupted.
You have to depend on your body’s response to nature and find a balance between your work and your personal health i.e. fashioning out time to sleep and reinvent yourself.
If you’re concerned about the quality and amount of sleep you’re getting, it’s good you talk to your personal physician.
As a general rule of thumb adults should sleep 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health for those working the normal 9 am-5 pm.
REFERENCES
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4434546/
