How much sleep do we need?

The hours of sleep we need depends mainly on how old we are. Babies sleep for about 17 hours each day while older children only need 9 to 10 hours a night. Most adults need around 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. Older people need the same amount of sleep, but will often only have one period of deep sleep during the night, usually in the first 3 or 4 hours, after which they wake more easily. We also tend to dream less as we get older.

There are also differences between people of the same age. Most of us need 7 to 8 hours a night, but some people can get by with only 3 hours a night. It is not helpful to regularly sleep more than 7 to 8 hours each night. The short periods of being awake feel much longer than they really are. So it is easy to feel that we are not sleeping as much as we actually are.

What if I don't sleep?

It is easy to worry when we can't sleep. The occasional night without sleep will make us feel tired the next day, but it will not harm our physical or mental health.

However, after several sleepless nights, we may start to find that we are tired all the time, difficult to concentrate, hard to make decisions and sometimes start to feel depressed.

This can be very dangerous if we are driving or operating heavy machinery. Many deaths each year are due to people falling asleep while driving. Lack of sleep for a prolonged period of time may also make us more vulnerable to high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.