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How much sleep do you really need?

Age matters when it’s time for bed
The National Sleep Foundation recommends daily sleep duration based on age. The younger you are, the more sleep you need.

Sleep is glorious, and many of us feel like we aren’t getting enough of it.

Well, now you have numbers to consult. Just refer to the National Sleep Foundation’s newly released set of recommended sleep duration for various points of life. These numbers were developed after an extensive review of past scientific literature and input from a variety medical professionals.

The recommendations for age categories from newborns to older adults were published in the National Sleep Foundation’s journal Sleep Health.

Here are their recommended sleep times:

Newly born to 3 months old: 14 to 17 hours

4 to 11 months old: 12 to 15 hours

1 to 2 years old: 11 to 14 hours

3 to 5 years old: 10 to 13 hours

6 to 13 years old: nine to 11 hours

14 to 17 years old: eight to 10 hours

18 to 25 years old: seven to nine hours

26 to 64 years old: seven to nine hours

65 and older: seven to eight hours

By comparison, the National Institutes of Health recommends newborns sleep 16 to 18 hours; preschoolers sleep 11 to 12 hours; school-aged children sleep at least 10 hours; teenagers sleep nine to 10 hours; and adults, including the elderly, sleep seven to eight hours.

“Sleeping too little and too much are both associated with increased risk of mortality and a range of other adverse health issues: cardiovascular disease, possibly cancer and also impaired psychological well-being,” said Lauren Hale, editor of the journal Sleep Health and associate professor of preventive medicine at Stony Brook University.



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