How Much Sleep Do We Need? Posted: 05-26-05 04:51am
The amount of sleep each person needs
depends on many factors, including age.
Infants generally require about 16 hours
a day, while teenagers need about 9 hours
on average. For most adults, 7 to 8
hours a night appears to be the best
amount of sleep, although some people may
need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10
hours of sleep each day. Women in the
first 3 months of pregnancy often need
several more hours of sleep than usual.
The amount of sleep a person needs also
increases if he or she has been deprived
of sleep in previous days. Getting too
little sleep creates a sleep debt, which
is much like being overdrawn at a bank.
Eventually, your body will demand that
the debt be repaid. We don't seem to
adapt to getting less sleep than we need;
while we may get used to a sleep-depriving
schedule, our judgment, reaction time, and
other functions are still impaired.The
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