Sleep tight, we need adequate sleep to function at our best.
Unfortunately, millions of adults in the United States are sleep deprived, either because they don't
give themselves enough time in bed or because they have insomnia.
How much sleep do you need?
Most of us have heard that we need eight hours of sleep tonight.
In reality, it's not quite that simple.
The latest guidelines from the National Sleep Foundation recommend seven to nine hours of sleep a night
for most adults, seven to eight for all older adults.
A minority of individuals actually need only six hours.
How do you figure out where you fall in that range?
Consider tracking your sleep for two weeks, noting the time you went to bed and that time would go
out of bed.
Subtract the approximate amount of time you were awake at the beginning, middle and end of the night.
Based on the numbers for each night, you can calculate the average amount of sleep you're getting.
For example, let's say you go to bed at ten thirty pm and get up at six thirty a.m. So you're in bed
for eight hours.
It takes you 10 minutes to fall asleep and you're generally awake in the night for 20 minutes or so,
then sleep through until your alarm at six thirty pm your total sleep time for this night would be eight
hours minus 30 minutes.
So seven and a half hours of sleep.
If you often feel sleepy during the day and you don't suffer from a medical condition that will account
for it.
Sleep apnea, you probably need more sleep than you're getting.
If you wake up consistently feeling relatively refreshed and aren't overly sleepy during the day and
aren't relying on caffeine or other stimulants to stay awake, you're probably getting enough sleep.