It is clear that sleep is essential at any age; sleep helps the mind, restores the body, and fortifies every system in the body. The Sleep Foundation advises that adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night. Babies, young children, and teens need more sleep to enable their growth and development. Adults over 65 are advised to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night.

How Much Sleep Do I Need?

Sleep varies among each individual. The guidelines listed by National Sleep Foundation recommends a range to cater for some people’s unique circumstances. To decide how much sleep you will need to consider daily activities, typical sleep patterns and overall health. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Do I feel productive with only 7 hours of sleep? Do I need more sleep to be more productive?

• Do I have coexisting health issues? Am I at higher risk of any diseases?

• Do I have a high level of daily expenditure? Do I frequently play sports or work in a labour-intensive job?

• Do you operate heavy machinery? Do I feel sleepy when doing activities?

• Do I depend on caffeine to get through the day?

By answering the questions above, you can begin to hone in on your optimal amount of sleep.

4 Stages of Sleep

Sleep can be identified in four distinctive stages. The first 4 stages are considered non-rapid eye movement (NREM sleep) also known as quiet sleep. Stage 4 is known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep also known as active sleep.

Stage 1: Transition period between wakefulness and sleep. This period lasts around 5 to 10 minutes. Your brain activity, heartbeat, eye movement, and breathing slow. Your body relaxes and your muscles twitch.

Stage 2: Your brain starts to produce small bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain waves activity known as sleep spindles. Your brain starts to consolidate memory; gathering, processing, and filtering new memories you have acquired the previous day.

Stage 3: Slow brain waves known as delta waves begin to emerge at stage 3. During this period of deep sleep where any noises or activity in the environment may fail to wake the sleeping person up. At this stage your muscles are completely relaxed, blood pressure drops, and breathing slows. Your brain at stage 3 consolidates general knowledge, facts or statistics, personal experiences, and other things you have learnt. During this stage, your body starts its physical repairs.

Stage 4: This stage occurs approximately 90 minutes after falling asleep. At this stage, your emotions and emotional memories are processed and stored. Your brain uses this time to cement information into memory, making it important for learning. During stage 4, your brain lights up with activity, your body is relaxed and immobilized, breathing is fasting and irregular, eyes move rapidly and you dream.

Sleep Debt

Not everyone can maintain a balanced sleep pattern and often participate in late-night movie nights or parties, which take us past midnight. If you wake up early for a morning jog or work you have reduced the number of hours you have slept. Therefore, causes sleep debt or sleep deficit. For example, if your body requires 8 hours of sleep but only have 6 hours – you have two hours of sleep debt. Sleep debt can be cumulative especially if you lose hours of sleep for a few days and they can quickly add up. Of course, you can recover your sleep debt by taking a nap or sleeping in during a weekend. The research noted that regular sleep loss could lead to potential weight gain. Research also suggests that it may take up to four days to recover from 1 hour of sleep loss. A full recovery from sleep loss can take more time as it will take a long recovery time to alleviate effects from prolonged sleep loss.

How to Improve Your Sleep Today?

Once you have identified the number of hours you need to sleep, it is time to start planning how to make that happen. First, start making sleep a priority in your schedule. This means budgeting for the hours you need so that work or social activities don’t trade off with sleep. Cutting sleep short is also tempting however reduction in sleep will have a negative impact, both mentally and physically.

Improving your sleep hygiene will involve your bedroom setting and sleep-related habits to help establish a way to get better sleep. Here are some sleep hygiene improvements:

• Monitor intake of caffeine and alcohol and avoid consuming them hours before sleep

• Disconnect from electronic devices like smartphones and laptops half-hour before sleep

• Start a relaxing pre-bed routine to make it easier to fall asleep quickly

• Stick to the same sleep schedule every day including weekends

• Choosing the correct mattress that is supportive and comfortable along with quality pillows and bedding

Summary

Having sufficient hours of sleep can lead to better productivity the following day. As we found out during the sleep stages, our bodies need sleep to consolidate our memories to help with learning as well as help with repairs. Evaluating your sleep and lifestyle will enable you to understand whether you are getting enough sleep to help you function at a productivity level. Following your sleeping pattern is essential to keep your body well rested otherwise you may have sleep debt/deficit which can take longer to recover from. There are several ways to help improve your sleep hygiene to ensure you get enough sleep to improve your health and wellbeing. Next time you think about staying up or going out for a late-night out, consider how long it would take to recover from your sleep loss.