About Sleep
Sleep Related Conditions
Sleep Disorders
It’s early in the morning and you hear your alarm blaring, telling you it’s time to wake up. Yet your eyes feel extremely heavy and you just want to hit the snooze button. Perhaps you’re not sleeping enough. How much sleep is enough then? Is 7 hours of sleep enough?
Keep reading to find out how much sleep is truly enough for your body!
How Much Sleep Do We Need?
Sleep is essential for every one of us as it helps to maintain our physical and mental health.
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and Sleep Research Society (SRS), a healthy adult needs to obtain seven or more hours of sleep each night to avoid chronic sleep deprivation [1].
This being said it should be acknowledged that the recommended sleep duration varies across different age groups and circumstances. For example, if you are much younger, you are recovering from a sleep debt or you are battling an illness, it is normal to get more than 9 hours of sleep.
Below is an infographic to help you determine how many hours of sleep you need, based on your age.
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How Much Deep Sleep Is Needed By Age?
Is 7 Hours Enough for Everyone?
To answer this question—it depends. Some people may feel that 7 hours of sleep is adequate while others may need more or less sleep. Everyone has different sleep needs depending on age, health, and lifestyle factors.
A research study done in 2017 found that a gene mutation could cause some people to sleep less without any health implications. The study examined the genes of three generations of a family known for being short sleepers.
Upon examination, it was discovered that there was a rare mutation in the ADBR1 gene which caused the increased activity of wake-promoting brain cells. This resulted in these people needing less than 6.5 hours of sleep per night.
So, this shows that getting 7 hours of sleep is not a hard and fast rule to follow for everyone. It is just that for most healthy adults, 7 hours is generally enough.
Health Benefits of Getting 7 Hours of Sleep
Sleeping for 7 hours can have positive impacts on your health, including improved cognitive function and decreased risk of certain health conditions. Here are five key health benefits of getting 7 hours of sleep:
- Improved cognitive function: Getting the amount of sleep you need allows your brain to function optimally, enhancing your memory, attention, and problem-solving abilities.
- Decreased risk of chronic diseases: Sleeping seven hours may lower the risk of developing conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
- Enhanced immune system: Sufficient sleep strengthens your immune system, helping you fight off infections and illnesses more effectively.
- Improved mood and mental health: Sleeping 7 hours promotes emotional well-being, reduces stress levels, and decreases the risk of mood disorders like depression and anxiety.
- Better physical performance: Adequate sleep supports muscle recovery, improves athletic performance, and boosts overall physical stamina.
Prioritizing 7 hours of sleep may have significant long-term benefits for your health and well-being.
What Happens If You Don’t Get Enough Sleep
If you don’t get enough sleep each night, you may wound up having sleep deprivation. When you are sleep-deprived, it can affect your overall well-being and lead to cognitive impairment.
Here are some common effects of sleep deprivation to help you understand its impact in more detail.
- Increased daytime sleepiness: If you are constantly not getting sleep, you will likely not be able to maintain normal daytime alertness. This results in feeling daytime fatigue.
- Impaired cognitive functioning: Many studies have shown that sleep deprivation may affect your ability to think properly and concentrate, leading to cognitive decline [2], [3].
- Accumulated sleep debt: Missing out on sleep consistently would result in incurring a sleep debt. A large sleep debt may lead to more physical and mental fatigue along with mood changes.
- Mood swings and irritability: Poor sleep quality can cause a shift in your mood. You are likely to have more frequent mood swings and experience heightened irritability.
- Increased heart problems: Not getting enough sleep is associated with higher susceptibility of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease.
If you are getting poor-quality sleep on a regular basis, you may want to consider consulting a doctor. Sometimes, it could be due to sleep disorders.
Quality vs. Quantity of Sleep
When it comes to sleep, both quality and quantity are important aspects. From the start till now, we’ve solely been focusing on the quantity of sleep. The idea is that the more hours we spend sleeping, the better.
While that is true, what also matters is the quality of our sleep. We might get 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night, but if we keep waking up during those hours, it can suggest poor sleep quality.
According to a research study on sleep quality conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, five key conclusions were drawn. One of these conclusions was that ‘sleep quality is a superior sleep index to sleep quantity for assessing sleep’ [4].
Still, we can’t say that sleep quality is more important than sleep quantity based on this conclusion. Other studies prove that poor sleep quality and quantity can both affect health and prevent the risk of certain diseases such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and kidney disease [5], [6], [7].
8 Tips to Optimize Sleep Quality
Based on all that we’ve discussed above, we should bring more of our attention to getting good quality sleep. This means that it is not only about duration but also how we feel when we wake up. Do we feel well rested or do we still want to close our eyes for a bit longer? Are we more energized during the day?
To help you enhance your sleep quality, here are 8 practical tips to try.
1. Maintain a consistent bedtime schedule
Maintaining a consistent bedtime schedule is one of the most effective ways to improve your sleep quality. When you are consistently going to bed and waking up at the same time, even on weekends, it helps your body’s internal clock or circadian rhythm to maintain synchrony with the social rhythm.
An irregular schedule would cause sleep difficulties and decrease alertness as your body clock is not able to keep up with the demands of daytime activities and duties [8].
Discover the best time to go to bed and wake up with our sleep calculator today.
2. Relax before bedtime
Avoid going to bed stressed or anxious. Lying in bed and overthinking about work or personal issues can keep you awake far longer than you’d like. Before you know it, it’s 3 a.m., and you’re still wide awake.
You want to create a calming pre-sleep routine by engaging in relaxing activities. These activities can be reading, taking a warm bath, or practicing mindfulness exercises like meditation or deep breathing.
This will signal to your body that it’s time to unwind, reducing stress and anxiety.
3. Avoid eating close to bedtime
It is also best to avoid eating heavy foods when it’s close to bedtime. Your body needs at least a few hours to properly digest the food you’ve eaten.
If you eat and decide to go to sleep immediately, you may wake up suddenly with discomfort, indigestion, or acid reflux.
If you are feeling hungry and must eat, go for a light snack that’s easy to digest (e.g. a piece of fruit or a cup of yogurt).
4. Create a comfortable sleep environment
Did you know that your sleep environment can also affect the quality of your rest? If you have an uncomfortable mattress or pillow, the discomfort may wake you up at night.
It’s important to get a comfortable mattress and pillow that will not leave you with neck or back pain. Keeping your room dark, quiet, and at a cool temperature can also help you to fall asleep faster.
You may also consider using things such as blackout curtains, earplugs, or white noise sounds as sleep aids. ShutEye® offers a variety of sleep sounds such as white noise, nature sounds and much more. Try it now for free!
5. Exercise regularly
Regularly exercising may also help to improve sleep quality. Exercise raises your core body temperature. As it begins to drop 30 to 90 minutes after your workout, it naturally encourages sleepiness, helping you fall asleep more easily.
That said, it’s important to ensure that you are not exercising too close to bedtime as it raises your heart rate, making it harder to relax. Try to exercise about 3-4 hours before going to sleep to give your body ample time to settle down.
6. Sleep only when you are tired
Going to bed when you’re truly tired increases the likelihood of falling asleep quickly. If you are unable to sleep, get up and do something else instead.
Forcing yourself only makes it difficult to fall asleep. It is best to train yourself to associate bed with sleep by only lying in bed when you are tired.
7. Avoid taking long naps during daytime
Naps can be beneficial especially when you are feeling restless and tired during the day. Taking a short 20-30-minute power nap is still fine. Anything beyond that should be avoided.
Also, try to avoid napping too often and late in the afternoon or evening. This is to ensure that you maintain a consistent sleep schedule.
8. Avoid caffeine intake late in the day
Lastly, avoid taking caffeine late in the day. Understandably, some people may need coffee during the day to keep themselves alert at work.
Caffeine is a powerful stimulant that can interfere with your sleep if consumed too late in the day. As much as you can, try to consume it in the morning or early afternoon. That way, you can avoid feeling wide awake in bed.
To sum these points up, here is a short video that was created by our ShutEye® team.
Conclusion
Getting 7 hours of quality sleep each night can have a profound impact on your overall well-being. From improved cognitive function and mood to decreased risks of heart and kidney problems, it offers amazing benefits, to say the least.
By making the conscious decision to prioritize your rest, you will be able to see the positive changes and enjoy a higher quality of life. We hope that all of the tips shared were helpful. Let’s work towards making sleep our superpower today!
