Would I feel better if I got some more sleep? Maybe – but that’s not guaranteed. We know how much sleep the average person needs, but the amount varies widely. Let’s start with the basics to better understand how many hours you need and when and how to get them.
This article is part of a special series exploring important questions about sleep. Click here for details.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, a typical adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep a night, but we all need more from the beginning of life. Newborns sleep between 14 and 17 hours, and this gradually decreases throughout childhood. Teens tend to need about 9 hours a night, and people over 65 about 7 to 8 hours a night. Sex may also be a factor. “There are some studies showing that women need about 20 minutes more on average than men,” says Veena Kumari of Brunel University in London. And there’s evidence that humans, like many animals, tend to sleep a little longer during the winter.
Of course there are exceptions. A rare genetic trait called familial spontaneous short sleep causes people to habitually go to bed late and wake up early, growing up in just 4 to 6 hours. “We don’t know how prevalent this is,” says Lisa Ashbrook of the University of California, San Francisco, who has identified many genetic variants associated with the trait, “but it’s in the minority.”
Most of us aren’t so lucky, but the occasional disturbed or shortened night doesn’t really matter. “We can more or less get through the night without sleep…
