How To Determine How Much Sleep You Need In a Day

By Philip Yiga | January 29, 2015

[Get This PrimeEffects Sweet Dreams Sleep Mask…..here]

Sleep is a necessity within everyone’s life because it plays a big role when it comes improving your health. However, you will notice that most feel drowsy and cannot even stop yawning during the day, this actually implies that may be they are not getting enough sleep like they should and this is not good for their health. On the other hand, oversleeping is also not good because makes the body to rest too much hence leading to development of several health issues. But in case you want to figure out how much sleep you need to have a healthy life, try following some of the steps featured below:

[1] TRY TO DEVELOP GOOD SLEEP HYGIENE:

In case you are experiencing bad-sleep like lying awake in in the bed when you actually want to sleep, then you cannot know how much good sleep you are getting. But to carry out this test, you will actually need a decent, quality sleep like falling asleep as soon as you go to bed without waking up a lot within the night. below are some of the basics that can help you achieve good sleep:

• Turn-off all the lights: before going to bed, close the curtains as tightly as possible and if necessary, put on a sleep mask to ensure total darkness because this is one of the most important factors of achieving a good sleep.
• Never try to eat or exercise in the last few hours before going to bed. This makes the body active hence making it hard to achieve a good sleep.
• Try not to drink a lot in the last hour before you sleep and also use the bathrooms right before going to bed. This will reduce on the likelihood of waking up to use the toilets in the middle of the night.
• Do not get into the habits of watching TV, reading, listening to music or doing any activity that engages your mind while you are in bed.
• Teach yourself how to clear your mind when you go bed because this stops you from thinking in order to get a good sleep. This can be achieved through taking meditation lessons.
• Abstain from taking cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine and medicines that may affect your sleep. Try to avoid these products during this test if you really want to achieve a good sleep.

 

[2] TRY CONSIDERING THE RECOMMENDED HOURS OF SLEEPING FOR YOUR HEALTH-GROUP AND AGE: Though this may not work for most people, it is good for one to aim for inorder to test your sleeping needs. Below are some of the recommended sleep hours according to age groups.

• Infants; these are recommended to sleep for about 14 to 15 hours for best results.
• Toddlers: they must sleep for at least 12 to 14 hours so as to achieve a good sleep.
• School-aged children: these should sleep for approximately 9 to 10 hours inorder to achieve healthy life.
• Teenagers: it is always good for teens to sleep for about 8 to 9 hours and on a daily basis to achieve healthy sleep.
• Adults: in case you are an adult, it is recommended to sleep for only 6 to 8 hours because this time is just enough to refresh your mind and body.
• Pregnant women: these are actually adults but they may experience an increased need for sleeping inorder to have a healthy life.
• Old people or adults: these also need the same sleeping hours like young-adults (6 to 8 hours). However, due to the tendency of waking up more frequently in the night, older people should consider napping during the day.
• People who were previously sleep-deprived: such individuals will need to sleep for extra hours until they recover completely from this situation.

 

[3] TESTING YOUR OWN SLEEPING NEEDS:

This will actually depend on your individual schedule and circumstances. you  can choose from the strategies below and try going for one that is most convenient for you:

TEST 1:

• Wake up at the same time on every morning of the week. The time you choose to wake up does not matter as long as it will not make you to have woken up earlier. This is just done during the period of the experiment but not for the rest of your life.
• Set an alarm and try to force yourself to leave the bed as soon as the alarm goes off without even hitting the snooze button.
• Move to bed every night when you feel tired: try not to stay up if you feel sleepy and also force yourself to go to bed even when you are not tired. In about 2-weeks, this will enable the body to know that it is supposed wake-up a specific time and also begin to consistently start feeling tired at a given time that provides you with a necessary number of sleeping hours.

TEST 2:

• Choose a specific time of going to bed that can allow you go for up to 9 to 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep before waking up. This should also be time when you can easily fall asleep. In case you are not tired or sleepy and you try lying in your bed without sleeping, then this test will not work.
• Don’t use an alarm-clock: in case you really need to wake up at 9am in order to go for work, then just go to bed at 11pm every night because this give you about 10-hours of sleep while ensuring that you naturally wake-up by 9am. If you are scared of sleeping for more than 10-hours, then set an emergency alarm at around 9:15am.
• As this test proceeds, you will notice that you start waking-up on your own and at the same time each day. for example if you go to bed at 12am every night and you wake-up feeling rested in each morning at around 8am, then this implies that you need only 8-hours of sleep.

 

[4] ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOUR BODY:

This will enable you to discover whether you need anywhere between 3 to 12 hours of sleep. In case you sleep that much or less yet you feel fine then do not let anyone advise you because there is no evidence for recommending one to sleep for 8-hours in a night. in fact people who need little sleep end-up sleeping for longer because everyone pressures them to more sleep inorder to become healthy which is not actually good.