How Much Sleep Do You Really Need Each Night?

Everyone has had that moment when they worry about not getting enough sleep. You crawl into bed, glance at the clock, and panic because it’s less than eight hours until you need to be up.

For some people, getting anything less than eight hours of sleep equates to sleep deprivation. Yet, there are plenty of people who can get by on much less sleep. Some people say they feel fine after only five or six hours of sleep. If sleep patterns vary so much by individual needs, then how much sleep do you really need?

How Much Sleep is Recommended?

The CDC recommends that adults ages 18 to 60 get at least seven hours of sleep a night ¹ Verified Source Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The U.S. federal public health agency. See the source , and following a consistent sleep schedule will help you function at your best. It is possible to get by on less sleep, but you won’t be functioning optimally.

Seven or eight hours of sleep might sound indulgent to people who scrape by on much less each night. Many people with hectic lives get by on six hours a night or less. Over time, this can turn into chronic sleep deprivation. Though you may think you can thrive on less than seven hours of sleep, the lack of rest can take a toll on your mind and body without you even realizing.

Unfortunately, you can’t fully make up for weeks, months, or years of too little sleep by spending a few days in bed. In one study, people who slept too little during the week and caught up on sleep over the weekend still had signs of poorer metabolic health ² Verified Source National Library of Medicine (NIH) World’s largest medical library, making biomedical data and information more accessible. See the source .

Sleep Needs by Age

As you age, the amount of sleep you need changes, and children need more sleep than adults. The CDC recommends 14 to 17 hours a day for newborns, 12 to 16 hours (including naps) for infants ages 4 to 12 months, 11 to 14 hours (including naps) for toddlers ages 1 to 2, 9 to 12 hours for children ages 6 to 12, and 8 to 10 hours for teens ages 13 to 17 ¹ Verified Source Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The U.S. federal public health agency. See the source . Older adults often have a harder time falling asleep, and they tend to sleep more lightly and wake up more often during the night ³ Verified Source MedlinePlus (NIH) The National Library of Medicine’s consumer health information service. See the source .

Below, we break down the recommended sleep needs by age.

What Happens When You Don’t Get Enough Sleep?

Did you know that we spend about one-third of our lives sleeping? In our busy culture, sleep is often viewed as a luxury. Yet, healthy sleep is as essential to human life as nutrition and hydration.

Sleep and Physical Health

Sleep is an active time when your body and brain do important work, and getting too little of it can affect your health. Good-quality sleep lowers your risk of health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and stroke. Sleep deficiency is also linked to higher blood sugar levels, which may raise your risk of diabetes, and to depression ⁴ Verified Source National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) Part of the National Institutes of Health, focused on heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders. See the source .

Shawna Robins, Health and Wellness Coach and best-selling Amazon author of Powerful Sleep, comments, “Teenagers, young kids, babies, and sick people need more sleep than healthy people because extra sleep allows for optimal growth and regeneration of all the body’s main organs and systems. Sleep is a very active time for your body to repair itself.”

Lack of sleep is also linked to weight gain and obesity. When you don’t get enough deep sleep, you may notice you are hungrier than usual.

That’s because sleep deprivation disrupts the balance of hormones that control hunger. When you don’t get enough sleep, your level of ghrelin, a hormone that makes you feel hungry, goes up, and your level of leptin, a hormone that makes you feel full, goes down ⁴ Verified Source National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) Part of the National Institutes of Health, focused on heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders. See the source . Additionally, the more hours you’re awake, the more chances you have to eat.

Sleep and Memory

Insufficient sleep can lead to problems with learning and memory.

When you’re sleeping, your brain forms the pathways that help you learn and remember new information. If you’re sleep deprived, this process doesn’t work as well ⁵ Verified Source National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH) Part of the National Institutes of Health, focused on brain and nervous system disorders. See the source . So staying up all night to study might do more harm than good when you can’t make sense of the test questions in the morning.

Lack of sleep also affects the way your memory functions. Storing memories most likely requires both non-REM and REM sleep ⁵ Verified Source National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH) Part of the National Institutes of Health, focused on brain and nervous system disorders. See the source . If you don’t get enough sleep, you may not cycle through enough stages of sleep for your brain to fully process those memories.

In fact, one large study found that people who regularly slept six hours or less a night in their 50s and 60s had a higher risk of developing dementia later in life ⁶ Verified Source Nature Communications (Nature Portfolio) A peer-reviewed open-access journal from Nature Portfolio. See the source .

People who have Alzheimer’s disease have buildups of a protein called beta-amyloid in their brains. In one NIH study, losing just one night of sleep led to an increase in beta-amyloid in the brain ⁷ Verified Source National Institutes of Health The U.S. government’s medical research agency. See the source . Researchers are still studying whether poor sleep over time contributes to Alzheimer’s disease.

Sleep and Mental Health

Sleep deprivation can negatively affect mood, and sleep deficiency has been linked to depression ⁴ Verified Source National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) Part of the National Institutes of Health, focused on heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders. See the source . This is especially important for people with existing mental health concerns, since poor sleep may make symptoms worse. If you have a mental health condition, getting enough sleep is an important part of self-care, and it’s worth talking to your doctor about any sleep problems.

Robins states, “Keeping a sleep journal can be an important tool to share with a mental health care professional to show if there are changes to sleep patterns, duration, quality, etc. This information is helpful for both the patient and the doctor to understand patterns and triggers with sleep and mental illness episodes.”

Sleep and Accidents

If you’ve ever stayed up all night, you know you aren’t your best self the next day. Without sleep, you think more slowly and have a delayed reaction time. This can be dangerous for people who drive, operate machinery, or work in health professions. Serious accidents are more likely to take place when a person is sleep-deprived. In fact, drowsy drivers were involved in an estimated 91,000 police-reported crashes and nearly 800 deaths in 2017 ⁸ Verified Source National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The federal agency responsible for U.S. road and vehicle safety. See the source .

Signs You May Not Be Getting Enough Sleep

Are you worried that your lack of sleep is impacting your safety, mental health, or memory? To know whether you’re sleeping a healthy amount, you need to consider both the number of hours you spend in bed and the quality of sleep you get while you’re there. If you’re having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning, you probably hit the snooze button over and over. Then, you get out of bed feeling sluggish, knowing you’re not getting enough sleep each night.

Living life while sleep deprived simply doesn’t feel good. If you want to feel better and function more efficiently, you need to pay attention to your sleep needs.

Signs You’re Not Sleeping Enough

If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms on a regular basis, it’s time to make changes to improve your sleep hygiene.

• You can’t wake up without an alarm clock, even on weekends.
• You want to oversleep or sleep all day on weekends.
• You hit snooze every morning.
• You don’t want to get out of bed in the morning.
• You get sleepy during quiet activities like meetings.
• Daytime sleepiness intensifies after lunch.
• Your drive home from work has you nodding off.
• You have the urge to nap in the afternoon.
• You wish you could sleep better.

How to Get the Sleep You Need

Sure, it sounds obvious, but going to bed earlier is going to help you get more hours of quality sleep. For a busy person or a night owl, the task of going to sleep earlier might seem impossible. Yet, you will actually be more productive the next day. You’ll feel more focused and accomplish more than if you’d stayed up late the night before.

Sleep experts recommend setting and keeping a consistent sleep schedule. Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day, including weekends, can help your circadian rhythm work more efficiently ⁹ Verified Source American Academy of Sleep Medicine (SleepEducation.org) The patient education site of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. See the source and lead to better sleep.

Regular exercise can help you fall asleep faster and improve your sleep quality ¹⁰ Verified Source Johns Hopkins Medicine An academic medical center known for patient care, research and medical education. See the source . Adults should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, such as 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week ¹¹ Verified Source American Heart Association The leading U.S. nonprofit focused on heart and stroke health. See the source . Exercise at any time of day is fine for most people, but vigorous workouts that end within an hour of bedtime may make it harder to fall asleep ¹² Verified Source Sports Medicine (Springer) A peer-reviewed sports medicine journal. See the source .

“Limit eating and drinking to three hours before bedtime. Sleep is a very active time for your body to rest and repair itself and if it is digesting food, then it will not be able to do this important regenerative work,” says Robins. “Plus, you can 1) have a sugar crash that wakes you up mid REM cycle and 2) have to use the bathroom which wakes you up mid REM cycle.”

Create a relaxing routine before bed. For some people who aren’t getting enough sleep, making bedtime more enjoyable can help you work up the urge to go to bed. Enjoy a cup of herbal or decaf tea, take a hot bath, read a book, or listen to your favorite podcast.

But don’t make screen time part of your bedtime routine. The blue light from your phone, computer, tablet, or tv screen can disrupt your body’s circadian rhythms, making it hard to get the rest you need.

When It’s Time to Talk to Your Doctor About Your Sleep

If you’ve made changes to your sleep habits like going to bed earlier and are still having sleep problems, talk to your healthcare provider. Many medical conditions can lead to sleep problems. Robins notes, “Sleep apnea is a big health concern and needs to be identified by a doctor. If left unchecked, it can lead to many chronic illnesses, depression and mental health problems.”

Depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders are all common causes of impaired sleep. It may sound overwhelming initially, but there is a treatment for what’s keeping you from getting the sleep you need, and a healthcare professional can help.

When You’re Not Getting Enough Sleep

Most adults need at least 7 hours of sleep a night. People who regularly get less than seven hours of sleep are at risk for sleep deprivation. When you don’t get enough sleep, you might notice changes in your mental health or memory. Following a consistent bedtime routine and making changes to your sleep hygiene can help you get the sleep you need.