How many hours of sleep should I be getting?
Well lately I haven’t been sleeping so well and I keep waking up at odd hours of the night and not falling back asleep for awhile. I’m 16 years old, I’m a junior in high school, how many hours of sleep do I need on average to keep me going. It seems that if I sleep more than 9 hours I become very tired during the day, and if I get less than 5 hours, I’m fine till the afternoon. I wake up at 5:45 every morning except for Saturdays and Sundays. I’ve read about sleep deprivation and I’m not showing any signs of it except for the loss of memory. I used to have a photographic memory until 9th grade when I lost my “child” sleeping habits. Getting less sleep i have also noticed an increase in my level of stress. I need some feedback on my sleep.
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8 Answers
The average person should be shooting for at least 8 hours.
Like @Winters said… You should be getting eight hours of sleep. Are you stressed? Stress can mess up your sleeping pattern.
Ideally, you should be getting more than five hours of sleep every night. You don’t ingest caffeine, do you? That’s when the majority of my friends developed a coffee-dependency instead of adjusting their sleep schedules and I would not recommend that route. Try and get a couple hours more sleep each night, eat an apple each morning, and take a 30–60 minute nap if you feel at all fatigued during the day.
From what you are saying, it sounds like you really need significantly more sleep than you are getting. Sometimes people wake up when they are worried about something, or at least can’t fall back asleep if they do wake up at night. So, think about what is going on in your life. See if you can write a journal about the day or issues you are thinking about before you go to sleep at night. Also, you can make a list of things to do for the next day, so that all these things are off your mind, and you can sleep more restfully, knowing you won’t forget them.
Same situation here as well. I do agree with @muppetish on the caffine. Don’t even go there it’ll make matters worse.
Yes stress may also be a factor, is school a problem? Work? Etc. Maybe time management?
I think napping during the day refreshes you a bit. Also some form of excersize/sport tends to tire you out a bit at night hence a nice sleep. :)
I would just aim for 8 and if that doesn’t work, than try 7and a half, then 7 and so on.
Funny you should say that 9 is too much. A read a study that suggested teens may need 12 hours of sleep. You might also try changing the time you go to bed.
The earlier you go to bed the more rested you are. Your body has an internal clock that is set to do several functions at certain times of the night.
I really don’t remember but I believe for every hours before 11pm you are asleep you actually get more rest.
So if you go to bed at 12 am and wake at 6 you slept only 6 hours. If you slept at about 11pm and woke at 6, your body feels it got rest equivalant to 8 hours instead of 7.
Your body does the most repairs while sleeping and your internal clock has set hours for these repairs. So the later you go to bed harder you make your body work.
Everybody is different. You have to just try different times to see what works for you and then stick to it, even on the weekends. Setting a sleep pattern that is the same 7 days a week give you the optimal rest you need.
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