How many a person needs to sleep?

Sleep is an important part of life. Thanks to him, the human brain, at rest, processes the information accumulated during the day and restores its strength.

A common phrase: "so it is possible and oversleep all his life", many are misleading. And we begin to wonder: how much does a person need to sleep?

The main criterion for determining the duration of sleep

And until now no one has been able to give an exact answer to this question: neither psychologists, nor doctors, nor researchers. The whole secret is that every person needs a certain number of hours to sleep. Only introspection will allow to calculate the duration of sleep, sufficient to restore strength, normalize mental activity, mental abilities.

Duration of sleep and age

And yet, over the centuries, science has made it possible to determine how much a person needs to sleep. Approximate duration of sleep is called even for each age period. Newborns sleep about 80% of the time of day. Up to 7 years, children sleep 10-11 hours, and an hour of them during the day (not in vain in kindergartens in the mode of the day there is a sleep-hour). From 8 years to adolescence - 8-10 hours. Entering the youth of a person is already enough and 6 hours.

Average, maximum and minimum duration of sleep

But the average duration of sleep is still equated to 8 o'clock. Whence such figure? An interesting fact was revealed by the research of American scientists. Those people who sleep more than 8 hours, live less than those who sleep 7 hours every night. If a person does not sleep enough for a long time (from 2 weeks to months), i.e. Sleeps less than 7 hours of recovery, there may be chronic fatigue, symptoms of lack of sleep, weakening of all body functions.

There are, however, individuals who are 6 hours long: they have enough time to restore their strength, feel themselves to be asleep and brisk every day. Many on the contrary, it is not enough 8 hours. If they sleep less, they feel broken and can not adequately react to the circumstances.

How much does a person need to sleep if the average indicators do not suit him? Of course, do not rely on average data, each person is unique and many "drop out" of statistics, including the duration of sleep. And yet, scientists have identified a minimum limit of 5 hours of sleep each night (identified based on data on cycles and sleep phases).

Consequences of chronic "lack of sleep" or what will happen if you sleep a little?

Lack of sleep affects the ability to think, adequately respond to circumstances, other people, the ability to navigate the situation. Not to mention the physiological manifestations of lack of sleep: weakness, drowsiness, yawning, changes in voice, movements become inhibited, gait is not even. Years of lack of sleep lead to rapid aging of the body, researchers of the physiology of sleep state.

What time do you go to bed?

Most modern people work from 8 o'clock in the morning. An hour of preparation and some time on the road. I have to get up at 6.30. What time you need to lie down to get up at this time depends on the individual duration of sleep. A person is able to adapt to a different rhythm of life. At the indicated daily routine by the 7th morning, the human body is ready to get out of sleep. This explains why many continue to wake up early even on weekends, holidays and during holidays.

And one more important detail

The phases of sleep are of much importance . Scientists, long decades studying the physiology of sleep, came to the conclusion that an equal number of hours does not give the desired effect. If, for example, a person slept for 8 hours and was awakened by an alarm clock (or someone), he will feel overwhelmed, and not because he did not sleep, but because he did not wake up in time. Scientists have named different lengths of sleep depending on the phases and cycles, suitable for all people with unique needs in sleep: 4.5 hours, 6 hours, 7.5 hours, 9 hours - i.е. With a difference of 1.5 hours. Again, this is averages, some sleep phases last longer - up to 2 hours.

So, the features of human sleep as a unique mental and physiological state of the organism were considered by scientists from different sides and the facts established by them will help everyone to determine how much a person needs to sleep, to make an individual regime of the day.