Everything about the right amount of sleep. Sleep is a crucial factor influencing mood, health, and mental performance. Learn everything about the ideal amount of sleep.
Table of contents
- How many hours of sleep does a person need on average?
- How many hours of sleep do babies and children need?
- How many hours of sleep do you need between 13 and 16?
- How many hours of sleep do adults need?
- How many hours of sleep do retirees need?
- Quality vs. Quantity
- How to find your optimal sleep duration
- Conclusion
- Sources
1. How many hours of sleep does a person need on average?
Most people sleep between 6 and 9.5 hours. Sleep researchers recommend an average of between 7 and 8 hours . While restful sleep is very important for mental and physical recovery, too much sleep can be harmful in the long run .
Studies have shown that people who regularly sleep more than 9.5 hours have a slightly increased risk of diabetes and obesity . However, a look at the statistics shows that most Germans tend to stay close to the recommended average: we spend an average of 8.22 hours in bed [1].
This makes the bedroom, or rather the bed, one of our primary places of residence: We spend an average of only 3.14 hours per day at work, and only 6 minutes per year cleaning the car. However, a person's ideal sleep duration depends on individual indicators such as age , lifestyle , and chronotype .
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2. How many hours of sleep do babies and children need?
Babies between four months and one year old need about 12 to 16 hours of sleep a day . As they get older, the amount of sleep decreases: for one- to two-year-olds, it's about 11 to 14 hours , and for three- to five-year-olds, it's 10 to 13 hours .
While the distribution of day and night sleep in babies is often quite equal, the ratio changes with each year of life in favor of evening and night sleep.
3. How many hours of sleep do you need between 13 and 16?
Children and adolescents also sleep quite long: While children between 9 and 13 years of age normally need 9 to 11 hours of sleep to be rested, teenagers between 14 and 17 years of age only need 8 to 10 hours of sleep.
Thus, the age group between 15 and 17 represents a transition to adulthood in terms of sleep duration. During childhood and adolescence, a person's individual sleep type often already becomes apparent.
4. How many hours of sleep do adults need?
How many hours of sleep do adults need? Between the ages of 18 and 64, we need an average of about 7 hours of sleep . However, many people report that 7 hours is not enough for them or that they often wake up after only 6 hours.
In women, hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle can also lead to a need for more or less sleep . Furthermore, your personal lifestyle also determines how long you need to sleep to recover.
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5. How many hours of sleep do retirees need?
For older people of retirement age, 5 or 6 hours of sleep are often sufficient . Older people, in particular, often return to taking short naps during the day . Thus, despite their very short sleep duration, they return to a child's day/night rhythm.
6. Quality vs. Quantity
No matter what age a person is in, the motto " quality over quantity " always applies when it comes to sleep! The decisive factor is the length of the deep sleep phase .
Physical recovery actually only begins when we have reached this phase: blood pressure drops , heart rate slows down and body temperature reaches its lowest point [2].
And roughly how many hours of deep sleep does a person need? Not as much as you might think: With a sleep duration of approximately six hours, deep sleep should account for approximately 15 to 25 percent of total sleep time. That's about 1.5 to 2 hours per night.
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7. How to find your optimal sleep duration
This is where different sleep and chronotypes come into play. Larks, for example, get up very early but then go to bed correspondingly early . Owls, on the other hand, do the exact opposite: They don't get up until midday and can stay awake late into the night .
Contrary to popular belief, extreme early risers and extreme night owls are very rare. Most of us fall into the middle range , which sleep researchers now refer to as the pigeon chronotype [3]. A good way to find out your chronotype and your ideal sleep duration is, by the way, your next vacation .
Go to bed when you feel tired and don't get up until you feel well-rested . Do this for three full days without consuming alcohol or caffeine before bed. This way, you can find out what works and adjust your daily routine accordingly, if possible.
Since even a slight lack of sleep can have many negative consequences , this is essentially a good step for all of us [4]. Only when you can concentrate on your work during the day without getting tired are you living according to your ideal rhythm.
In addition to the hormonal cycle in women, your individual sleep type and the substances you consume during the day, your level of physical activity also has a direct impact on your sleep : As an athlete or amateur sportsman, you often need a little more sleep so that your muscles can regenerate.
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8. Conclusion
The ideal amount of sleep depends on your age group, lifestyle, and personal chronotype. Regardless of how long you sleep, the most important thing is to get 1.5 to 2 hours of deep sleep per night.
Sleep is essential for our well-being and mental performance. Therefore, you should definitely make your sleep quality a priority. An easy way to find out what works best for you is to fall asleep and wake up naturally on three days off.
9. Sources
[1] Jawabri, KH; Raja, A. (2020), Physiology: Sleep Patterns, StatPearls, online: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK551680/.
[2] Kaufmann, S. (2016), OECD study: Off to bed, Frankfurter Rundschau, online: https://www.fr.de/panorama/bett-11068234.html.
[3] Roenneberg, T. (2019), The Right to Sleep: A Manifesto for Sleep and an Obituary for the Alarm Clock, dtv-Verlag.
[4] Worley, SL (2018), The Extraordinary Importance of Sleep: The Detrimental Effects of Inadequate Sleep on Health and Public Safety Drive an Explosion of Sleep Research, Pharmacy & Therapeutics, Volume 43, Issue 12, p. 758-763, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6281147/.
