How much sleep do you need per day to get enough sleep and stay alert?

The process of sleep is no less important for a person than, for example, regular nutrition. And yet, how many times have we sacrificed sleep due to lack of time! What consequences can this lead to and how can you improve your sleep quality? AnySports asked experts.

No other type of rest, except sleep, will allow us to relieve tension and fatigue, get rid of heavy and obsessive thoughts, and gain strength. Moreover, how many important processes occur in the body at night! The body undergoes a process of synthesis and decay: skin and hair cells are actively dividing, various hormones are formed, etc. And the brain “sleeps only with half an eye” - it needs to sort out a lot of information during sleep.

Why sleep is so important

Sleep is the body’s time of restoration, the main source of health, beauty and vitality. Every person spends about 30% of their entire life on it.

During a night's rest, a number of important processes are launched in the body:

• restoration of cells damaged by stress, disease, injury, ultraviolet radiation, etc.;
• muscle fiber regeneration;
• replenishment of energy reserves depleted during wakefulness;
• increasing immune defense;
• preparing the heart and blood vessels for the next period of activity.

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Reasons for violations

Changes in the duration of deep sleep, the absence of this phase, as well as superficial, shallow and intermittent night rest occur under the influence of various reasons. Psycho-emotional disorders and various diseases can provoke such changes:

1. Chronic stress affects the quality of rest and will lead to permanent impairment. Most often, such changes occur due to exposure to a traumatic factor. Sometimes their appearance is caused by depression and bipolar affective disorder.
2. Pathologies of internal organs can disrupt the delta period. The clinical manifestations of these diseases prevent proper rest at night. Pain syndrome occurs due to osteochondrosis or injury. At the same time, the person begins to wake up frequently.
3. Problems in the genitourinary system lead to a systematic urge to urinate. In this case, rest becomes incomplete. A person is forced to constantly get up and go to relieve himself.

More often, disturbances appear due to changes in the emotional background. Under their influence, problems arise with night rest and its slow stage is reduced.

Treatment options

It is extremely important to identify the cause of deep sleep disturbances in order to select appropriate treatment tactics. If the cause of the disorder lies in the development of diseases of the internal organs, then in order to solve the problem, therapy is carried out aimed at eliminating them.

If the disturbances occur due to depression, then antidepressants are prescribed to help restore the psycho-emotional state, and a course of psychotherapy is carried out. When solving the problem of how to achieve sound and deep sleep, sometimes they use sleeping pills. They can only be taken on the recommendation of a doctor. Self-medication is an unacceptable measure.

It is extremely important to create all the conditions to ensure the normal alternation of phases without changing their duration. Without this, restoration of the body at night will be impossible. For this purpose, you need to consult a doctor and conduct a comprehensive diagnosis. In this way, it will be possible to choose the appropriate treatment tactics and eliminate the problems that arise.

A slow period of rest is extremely important for the body. Only if it is complete and continuous does a person feel good in the morning, his mood improves, and he is able to easily complete all the necessary work. Reducing this stage leads to a worsening of the condition and even the development of serious diseases.

What are the dangers of lack of sleep?

From chronic lack of sleep, a person quickly gets tired and loses the ability to concentrate on the task at hand. Gradually, stress develops into depression, which leads to obesity, diabetes, and stimulates the appearance of suicidal thoughts. Even a sleepless night can trigger metabolic processes that lead to hypertension and associated vision impairment.

A study conducted by scientists from the University of Hong Kong found that lack of sleep can have a negative impact on DNA structure. The subjects were volunteer doctors who regularly went on duty during the day and night. They took blood samples at the initial stage (after a good rest before starting their shift) and after finishing work.

A comparison of the results showed that those who worked in the dark had a higher degree of chemical DNA deformation than those who worked on the day shift. In addition, the former showed impaired cell repair function.

A person who regularly does not get enough sleep reacts sharply to external stimuli and feels pain more strongly. These conclusions were made by neuroscientists from the United States, who measured the level of sensitivity to heat and brain activity in 25 volunteers over several months. Participants who slept well showed higher tolerance to low indoor temperatures. After a sleepless night, similar conditions caused them obvious discomfort.

Disruptions in the neural mechanisms that control physiological responses to pain have also been documented. Thus, it was found that sleep is a natural analgesic.

Rules for healthy sleep

Human biorhythms are sufficiently regulated by the change of day and night. For a long time we lived in harmony with both nature and our own body: we got up at dawn and went to bed at sunset. But the modern lifestyle, with its ability to stay awake as long as you like, throws off our circadian rhythms. The duration and quality of sleep is decreasing, and this trend has only been gaining momentum recently. What do you need to consider to have truly sound and healthy sleep?

— Coordinate your work schedule. It is better to plan all important matters before 17:00. After this time, do only routine. Otherwise, the stress hormone cortisol, which should decrease during the day, will jump in the evening, and this will make it difficult for you to fall asleep;

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Have dinner. At night, your body needs nutrients to make skin cells and hormones.
So lean meat or fish with a salad of non-starchy vegetables is the best option for dinner a couple of hours before bed. Is alcohol appropriate before bed? “Alcohol causes a sharp jump in blood sugar,” says Olga Jacob. “And this, in turn, increases insulin production, which contributes to decreased sleep quality.”

— Follow the regime.

There is an opinion that if you want to get enough sleep, you need to go to bed before 12 o'clock at night. How true is it? “I have not seen any recommendations in the scientific literature on when it is better to go to bed in order to get enough sleep,” comments Yuri Poteshkin. — When going to bed late, as a rule, the wake-up time remains the same. Therefore, a person does not get the required amount of sleep.”

On this topic:

• 5 products that will help normalize sleep
• Healthy sleep as a cure for overeating
• How to relax with an evening yoga routine

But there is another opinion: for the period from 12 at night to 4 in the morning, there is an active synthesis of the hormone melatonin - a powerful antioxidant that takes an active part in the processes of restoration of the body, in the synthesis of a number of hormones and in the breakdown of fats. It is also responsible for the quality of sleep. With a lack of melatonin, many people begin to sleep intermittently and anxiously or even suffer from insomnia.

— Put away gadgets. Working appliances make our sleep interrupted and disturbing. When light from the screens hits closed eyes, it signals the beginning of awakening. As a result, various organ systems are activated: nervous, endocrine, digestive. And the synthesis of valuable melatonin stops.

— Organize your sleeping area correctly. Silence, darkness, room temperature of about 18-20 degrees, a comfortable mattress and pillow, fresh bed linen - this is what you need for a healthy and sound sleep.

- Don’t try to force yourself to fall asleep. If you don't feel like sleeping 10-15 minutes after you lie down, don't torture yourself. Get up and do some simple household chores. After 20-30 minutes, try to fall asleep again.

Healthy sleep: what is it like?

A healthy person's sleep consists of 2 phases:

1. Slow. Sleep lasts about 90 minutes. It is characterized by decreased blood pressure, smooth, calm breathing, slow pupil movements, and low brain activity. At that time, the body rests and restores physical strength.
2. Fast. Sleep lasts from 10 to 20 minutes. In this case, there is an increase in pressure and body temperature, increased heart rate, rapid movements of the pupils, and increased brain activity. This is the period of dreams.

Throughout the night, these phases repeatedly replace each other, allowing all organs, systems and the psyche to fully recover and prepare for a new day.

Healthy sleep is accompanied by deep diaphragmatic breathing. Its benefit is the active saturation of the blood with oxygen and the rapid delivery of nutrients to the cells. Hence the acceleration of metabolism, healing and rejuvenation of the body.

However, switching to diaphragmatic breathing will be impossible if a person goes to bed with a full stomach. Therefore, doctors recommend refraining from eating heavy and fatty foods 2-3 hours before going to bed.

The sleeping position is no less important. You can get the best sleep lying on your stomach. If dinner was late and plentiful, it is better to lie on your right side. This will allow food to move freely from the stomach to the intestines, and you will wake up in the morning feeling light. In addition, this position will allow you to forget about morning swelling on the face and early wrinkles on the neck. But sleeping on your back is considered the most beneficial. At first it may seem uncomfortable, but thoughts of a healthy stomach, a fresh complexion and a pain-free back will help you get used to this need.

If the rumbling in a hungry stomach still prevents you from falling asleep, a glass of warm herbal tea, milk with honey, or soy milk will help pacify it. A good alternative would be a quiet walk in the fresh air, which will help you take your mind off thoughts about food and set you up for a good rest.

It is better to ventilate the room in the evening, make the bed with fresh linen, and after a warm shower, put on soft pajamas that are appropriate for the season and do not restrict movement. The room should be dark; only in the complete absence of light does the human body produce melatonin, which is responsible for protecting against multiple sclerosis and depression.

General definition

What is healthy sleep? With the birth of a child, parents teach him to observe a daily routine and develop concepts such as day is intended for wakefulness, and night is for complete rest of the body.

Important: During sleep, many different processes occur in the human body that have a positive effect on all systems and organs. In addition, the body gets rid of daytime fatigue and improves tone.

Initially, the child adheres to the daily routine. However, as you get older, the habits developed in childhood change. Night rest takes less time, and the daytime load becomes greater.

And at this moment, the main task of a person is to rebuild his rest and work regime in such a way that the body recovers. And if the next morning you wake up feeling energized, then the chosen time for sleep is optimal.

How much sleep does an adult need to get enough sleep?

Scientists have found out how long a person's healthy sleep lasts - 7 hours 40 minutes. However, this figure is not a law, since each person is individual: 6 hours is enough for some, while others cannot recover in 9.

Moreover, if a person goes to bed later than 23.00, it does not matter how long he sleeps. His health will deteriorate due to chemical and hormonal processes occurring in the body and ensuring restoration of the nervous system only until 00.00. The optimal time for a night's rest is considered to be from 21.00 to 05.00.

How to determine your norm

To calculate your individual sleep norm, you need to consider the following nuances:

1. Time to rest. By going to bed at 22.00 and getting up at 05.00, you can rest much better than falling asleep at 00.00 and waking up at 08.00.
2. Physical activity. 1 hour spent in the gym adds 1.5 hours of full recovery.
3. Age. Babies and old people need rest more than older people.

How to reduce sleep time

In order to increase your waking time per day, you need to properly organize your sleep. First, it’s worth setting a routine: bed no later than 9:30 p.m., wake-up no later than 4:30 a.m. After 10 days of strict adherence to the accepted routine, the body will adapt to it and will independently switch from a state of rest to work and back.

The more attentive a person is to the principles of organizing healthy sleep, the less time he will spend in bed. The body and psyche will recover faster, and the need for long-term rest will disappear.

How to form a good rest

Sound sleep is the key to human health and longevity. But how to develop the optimal regime? To do this, we suggest using the recommendations of experts:

1. We adhere to the optimal regime. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, regardless of whether it’s a weekend or vacation. This approach will help set up the correct functioning of the biological clock.
2. We plan time for sleep. An adult spends from 6 hours 30 minutes to 8 hours a day sleeping. But not only sleep time has an impact, the quality component of rest plays a big role. In other words, a person normally sleeps without awakening.
3. When you wake up in the morning, try to reduce the time you get up. You shouldn't lie in bed for a long time. Otherwise, you may fall asleep again, and this will negatively affect the coming day. Warming up in bed helps a lot; it will invigorate you and put you in a positive mood for the whole working day.
4. If you want to get a good night's sleep, spend two hours in a quiet environment before your planned rest. Avoid watching programs and films with negative plots. Avoid physical activity as well.
5. To get a good night's sleep, avoid napping during the day. Of course, a 30-minute nap at lunch will give you strength and put your thoughts in order. However, people prone to insomnia should avoid resting during the day.
6. It is recommended to fill your life with physical activity and a colossal flow of information during daylight hours. But when evening comes, it’s time for relaxation and rest.
7. Smoking, drinking too much coffee and alcohol guarantee sleep deprivation and health problems. If you don’t have the will to completely say goodbye to your habits, try to reduce them to a minimum.

To have a healthy rest, make it a habit to think positively before going to bed, ventilate the bedroom, isolate extraneous sounds so that there is silence in the room and create darkness. This will help you fall asleep quickly and make your sleep deep.

Variability of sleep depending on age and gender

It is impossible to accurately answer the question of how long healthy sleep should last: the rest needs of each person are individual and depend on gender and age. Generally accepted standards for children, adolescents and adults are shown in the table.

Research has shown that women's need for rest is higher than men's. During pregnancy and lactation, when rest helps increase milk supply, the mother needs to be given the opportunity to fully restore her physical and emotional strength.

Optimal time for relaxation: data for people of different ages

If you think about how much time it takes to fully rest, then sleeping 480 minutes a day is enough. But this figure was determined for older people. What is the optimal time period in other situations?

Scientists who studied the well-being of people before and after waking up found the answer to this question. Here's how many hours people need to get enough sleep:

• newborn children – 14-17;
• 4 months – year – 12-15;
• 1 year – 2 years – 11-14;
• less than five years – 10-11;
• children under 13 years old - from 9 to 11;
• adult child under 17 years old – 8-10;
• person aged 8-9;
• people over 60 years old – 7-8.

If athletes and people cycle, they may get less rest than the study found. Complete relaxation is divided into several separate cycles. They last for 90 minutes each.

Rest will be complete when a person does not try to interrupt the consequences of cycles. This is why you can get enough sleep even if you sleep 90 minutes a day. But, of course, this does not need to be practiced all the time. The topic of sleep has still been studied very little, but it is already clear that 90 minutes is too little.

If you don't know how many hours you need to rest, try monitoring your condition after waking up. For some people, 4.5 or 6 hours are enough to restore their energy. But many people lack complete relaxation to rest. These points are determined by the individual characteristics of people, their state of health and lifestyle.

For example, if there are too many wastes and toxins in the body, the body needs a lot of energy to neutralize this garbage. Weakness and drowsiness are felt with insufficient consumption of clean water. Water gives us energy, so drink enough fluids!

When to go to bed to get enough sleep

To wake up fully rested, you need to go to bed no later than 10 p.m. If you go to bed later, the body will not have time to produce hormones and other chemicals necessary to protect the immune system and restore nerve fibers and muscles.

Is it good to sleep during the day?

Today, sleep specialists do not have reliable data that daytime sleep increases life expectancy or protects against chronic diseases. However, it has been proven that thanks to short-term rest during daylight hours, a person feels a surge of vitality, efficiency and an optimistic mood.

The structure of daytime sleep is no different from nighttime sleep. It consists of two alternating phases, the duration of which is slightly shorter than at night. In addition, melatonin production is blocked during the day.

The study found that people who fall asleep during a period of decreased daytime activity wake up groggy, with a “heavy” head and even more tired than before. And falling asleep for a short time after sunset disrupts the biological rhythms of melatonin production.

Is it harmful to sleep during the day?

Today, many European countries practice long day rest. This is due to the characteristics of the climate zone. Yes, and taking a nap during the lunch break has a number of positive aspects:

• a rested person has improved visual memory;
• mental concentration is restored;
• efficiency increases;
• a good influx of energy arrives.

The main thing is not to overdo it with daytime naps. An effective result can be obtained from a 30-minute rest, anything more will provoke night insomnia. In addition, the person will have symptoms such as:

• lethargy;
• headache;
• apathy.

This also applies to sleeping at sunset. It is believed that falling asleep between 17:00 and 18:00 hours will negatively affect your condition. Therefore, doctors advise not to go to bed at this time, even if you really want to. Endure your nap and go to bed later in the night.

How to organize healthy sleep

The principles of organizing normal sleep are simple and accessible to everyone:

1. Have dinner at least 2-3 hours before going to bed.
2. 1 hour before bedtime, turn off the computer and TV.
3. Take a warm, relaxing shower.
4. Ventilate the room.
5. Darken the windows, do not turn on the night light. Only in the dark does the body synthesize melatonin, which is responsible for maintaining immunity and mental health.
6. Go to bed at 22.00, wake up at 05.00.
7. Sleep on your back.
8. Use an orthopedic pillow with a height of 10-14 cm and a width corresponding to the width of the shoulders.
9. After waking up, give your body a couple of minutes to adapt, and then get up, without allowing yourself to fall back into sleep.

Sleep disorders

Some people suffer from various sleep-related illnesses.

We are talking about the following pathologies:

1. Insomnia (insomnia), in which a person cannot fall asleep for a long time or often wakes up.
2. Hypersomnia, which is excessive sleepiness.
3. Parasomnia. The main signs are sleepwalking, nocturnal enuresis, fears and nightmares, and seizures during sleep.
4. Psychosomatic insomnia. It consists of situational insomnia caused by emotional stress. The duration of symptoms does not exceed 3 weeks.
5. Post-somnia disorder, in which a person who wakes up feels tired, weak, and lacks strength.
6. Sleep apnea is a breathing disorder during sleep.
7. Bruxism. The symptom is teeth grinding caused by spasms of the masticatory muscles during sleep.

Most of these pathologies are within the competence of neurologists and somnologists. In advanced conditions, they can lead to the development of cardiovascular, endocrine, immune and mental disorders.

Is it true that you need to sleep 8 hours a day?

Let us remember the phrase - a person spends a third of his life sleeping. If you start from it, you can divide the day into 3 parts and get the number 8. This is the number of hours recommended to sleep by most sources discussing the topic of sleep. But this is just an average value, which makes no sense to rely on.

To understand how many hours of sleep you need per day, you should take into account the degree of daily physical activity, daily routine, amount of sleep in previous periods of time, age, general physical condition and other factors. All people are unique and everyone has their own biorhythms. Therefore, for an individual person, the daily sleep requirement will be individual.

How to get enough sleep in a short time

There are several techniques that allow you to dramatically reduce the duration of sleep and restore strength in a short time.

Productive sleep technique

Recovery of the nervous system occurs only during the fast phase, the duration of which does not exceed 20 minutes. During 7-8 hours of continuous sleep, a person plunges into it only 2 times. But this allows you to feel cheerful, active and full of energy in the morning. If you wake a person in the slow phase of sleep, he will feel tired and apathetic throughout the day.

Thus, it is not the time spent in sleep that is important, but the moment of awakening. The technique of productive sleep is to increase the efficiency of the fast phase.

You can do this in several ways:

1. “Siesta” is a long rest at night and a short rest (about 20 minutes) during the day. Reduces the duration of night sleep by 2 hours. When going to bed during the day, you need to set the alarm for 20 minutes - this will allow you to go through only the fast phase. Otherwise, the result will be the opposite: loss of strength, irritability and apathy.
2. “Staircase” - consists of using several 20-minute sessions of daytime sleep, each of which reduces the duration of night rest by 1.5 hours.
3. “Superman” - during the day you need to organize 6 sleep sessions of 20 minutes each.

REM sleep technique

The REM sleep technique was invented in Japan. It is based on several rules that can reduce the time spent in bed to 4-5 hours.

Its principles are as follows:

1. Don't have dinner before bed.
2. Abstract yourself from problems and worries.
3. Fill the pillow with aromatic herbs.
4. Before going to bed, take a warm shower. Imagine how water takes away fatigue, irritation and resentment.
5. Go to bed before midnight.
6. Choose the right blanket - it should not be too thin or heavy.
7. Sleep on your back.

Special Forces Methodology

Having mastered the special forces technique, you can learn to fall asleep in any conditions in 2 minutes.

Her rules:

1. Lean back in a chair or lie down on the bed. Legs should be parallel.
2. Cross your arms over your chest. Place your chin on your chest. Relax your jaw and let it drop freely.
3. Breathing should be deep and calm.
4. Alternately relax the muscles of the head, tongue, lips, eyes.
5. With each exhalation, release tension and unnecessary thoughts.
6. Relax your arms and legs; they should resemble “dead weight.”
7. Mentally imagine virgin nature, calming the mind.

Consequences of lack of sleep and oversleeping

Why is not only lack of sleep dangerous, but also oversleeping? Let's start with the fact that there are 24 hours in a day, ideally people should spend 8 hours on:

• work processes;
• rest;
• dream.

However, in reality, few people adhere to such a schedule. Moreover, as a rule, the time intended for recuperation is often reduced or increased. The fact is that some people prefer to solve a number of problems by reducing the duration of sleep.

But others, on the contrary, prefer to go to bed much earlier than the scheduled time. As a result, we have a lack of sleep or oversleeping, which equally negatively affect our well-being, manifesting itself with the following symptoms:

• isolation, lethargy and apathy;
• a sharp decrease in serotonin production as a result of which a person begins to suffer from depression;
• the appearance of nervousness and irritability;
• decreased performance;
• decreased mental abilities;
• premature aging;
• deterioration in physical fitness;
• failure of almost all important systems of the body.

These are the consequences of chronic lack of sleep. However, oversleeping also has a number of consequences, namely:

• drowsiness observed throughout the day;
• depression;
• swelling of the body due to the body being in one position for a long time;
• problems with excess weight.

As we see, the lack and abuse of night rest equally affects the human body negatively. Therefore, doctors recommend calculating the optimal norms for your body and sticking to them. To make your task easier, use an online calculator.

It is important to understand that the right time for rest guarantees a person complete rest. Moreover, you will wake up refreshed and well-rested in the morning. Moreover, this positive charge will remain throughout the day.