Sleep Requirement - How Much Sleep Do You Need Based On Age?

Here’s a sleep requirement guide according to age group.

SLEEP REQUIREMENT – The hours of sleep a person needs daily depends on his or her age and here’s a guide on how much sleep is needed by your body.

What the body needs for it to be fully rested and refreshed is sleep. Some people are short sleepers while some are long sleepers but generally, children need more sleep than adults. Why do we need enough sleep? Poor sleep can have bad effects in the long run affecting our health in general and even increasing the risk of serious health conditions like obesity, high blood pressure, and others.

What do we get from a good sleep?

Some of the benefits of sleeping are being sick less often, maintaining a healthy weight, reducing risk of serious problems, reducing stress, improving mood, being focus at school and work, making good decision, preventing accidents and injury, and many others.

Here’s a guide on how many hours should you sleep:

Infants (ages 0-3 months) – 14-17 hours a day
Infants (ages 4-11 months) – 12-15 hours a day
Toddlers (ages 1-2 years) – about 11-14 hours a day
Preschool children (ages 3-5) – 10-13 hours a day
School-age children (ages 6-13) – 9-11 hours a day
Teenagers (ages 14-17) – about 8-10 hours each day
Most adults – 7 to 9 hours each day
Older adults (ages 65 and older) – 7-8 hours of sleep each day.
Women in the first 3 months of pregnancy often need several more hours of sleep than usual.

Your sleep schedule also matters. Your body has this “biological clock”. You would also need to sleep regularly in the same pattern every night for better results. This “biological clock” depends on the time – you are alert in the daytime and naturally get tired and sleepy at night. Getting exposed to the sun also affects your body’s circadian rhythm.

However, it’s not all the time that we get to sleep peacefully. There will be times when we suffer from trouble sleeping and some factors could even worsen it like stress, anxiety, pain, certain health conditions, some medicines, caffeine, and sleep disorders left untreated like sleep apnea or insomnia.

Here are some drinks and foods to eat to sleep better: