How much sleep do we need?

Kimberly Cote
Professor of Psychology
Faculty of Social Sciences
For healthy adults (ages) 18 to 64, we know that they’re recommending that people get between seven and nine hours of sleep each night. Now, that doesn’t mean that you can get anywhere between seven and nine (hours) and you’ll be fine. You as an individual actually have a sleep number, something that you need as an individual.
So how do we figure that out? How do we figure out how much sleep do I need? It sounds a bit simple, but you really have to pay attention to how well you’re feeling during the day and how you’re functioning. You shouldn’t be excessively sleepy during the day. You shouldn’t be falling asleep at inappropriate times, like in my lecture or while stopped at a stop sign. If you’re feeling rested throughout the day and you’re not having trouble concentrating, then you’re allowing yourself enough time in bed to get the sleep that you need.
We know that just one night of sleep loss, just a bit of sleep restriction by a couple of hours, leads to things like reduced reaction time, impairments in memory and learning, and that contributes to things like accidents on the highways and in the workplace and reduced productivity overall.
Teenagers 14 to 17 years old require between eight to 10 hours sleep; school-aged children between six to 13 actually need between nine and 11 hours of sleep, and pre-school children aged three to five need 10 to 13 hours of sleep. A newborn sleeps 16 hours a day. So, sleep changes drastically over the lifespan and especially in those early years of development, and that’s why we know sleep is important for early brain development.
Music courtesy of bensound.com Learn more about Research at Brock, by visiting brocku.ca/rese....