How many hours of sleep do you really need?

We all love to sleep, don't we? But how long do you actually sleep? Are you satisfied with the sleep you usually get?

We all heard that we need eight hours of sleep every day but this is not the actual case, some might just need 6 hours while others need 9 hours of sleep. It depends on your lifestyle and age. If you are a teenager, then obviously we all know that teenagers won't leave the bed until their mom pour a bucket of water on their head. This is because in our teen years our body is going through a lot of hormonal changes and other bodily changes and the body needs time to repair it. This is why teenager might even sleep more than 10 hours.

All credits of this image goes to its owner

There are also other factors which influence the amount of time that you sleep such as an underlying medical condition. A simple example is if you are really depressed, then you would sleep more time than you usually does. Usually the optimal amount of sleep for adults is about 7 to 8 hours but do you think all adults need to get this much sleep? Some people might just need 5 hours or 6 hours and still they feel energetic when they wake up.

Oversleeping and under sleeping have also got some drawbacks. " In a study of almost 9,000 Americans, researchers found a relationship between sleep and the risk of diabetes. People who slept more than nine hours each night had a 50% greater risk of diabetes than people who slept seven hours per night. This increased risk was also seen in people who slept less than five hours per night".


Moreover, sleeping too long can also cause obesity as well. In a recent study it is found that people who slept for nine or 10 hours every night were 21% more likely to become obese over a six-year period than were people who slept between seven and eight hours.

Just sleep up to your preferred time, do not over sleep neither less sleep. A best way to check your optimum amount of sleep is, do not keep an alarm to wake you up, instead wake up naturally and look at the time. This will be your optimum sleeping time. It can be as low as 6 hours or as high as 9 hours.

Labels: , ,