How Many Hours of Sleep Do You Need?
June 25, 2009 by Cherie Burbach
Filed under Diseases & Conditions, Women's Health
So many of us don’t get enough sleep. And we need it. Research shows that sleep helps boost immunity, maintain weight, and even contributes to heart health. Just an additional hour tremendously.
But how much do you need? It varies as we age. MSN Health offers from recomendations:
• Toddlers 12-14 hrs
• Preschoolers 11-13 hrs
• School-age children 10-11 hrs
• Adolescents 9-10 hrs
• Adults 7-9 hrs
With busy lives, it seems that the first thing that falls by the wayside is sleep. We cut into our nightly zzz’s just to get more done. Where do you rate on this scale?
Image: sxc.hu.
I am one of those people that just can’t function without enough sleep. I have a set bedtime and wake-up time, which I find makes it easier to get enough sleep with my busy household. If bedtime is up in the air, then I would stay up way too late doing other tasks and wind up in bed at 2am only to get up at 6am!
I think that I really need about 8 or 9 hours in order to fully enjoy the next day. However, with a very busy life I get probably 6 hours a day. I work at night and during the day I sleep a while, but when I awake, I lay there thinking about other things that I need to do or would like to be doing. I then get up start doing those things such as blogging, reading or cleaning. The next time the need for sleep enters my mind is about 3 hours just prior to the start of my shift.