How Much Deep Sleep Should You Get?
Get enough sleep is crucial for overall health, mood and alertness. Sleep helps maintain a healthy weight, boost immunity, improve memory/attention span as well as keep mood stable. Without enough restful restorative restful rest you could experience various negative symptoms such as fatigue headaches decreased ability to focus and concentrate.
Many people know they need at least eight hours of restful sleep each night to feel rested, yet every person's needs for restful rest differ depending on when, how, and why they go to sleep; their age; any existing conditions; etc.
When calculating how many hours of sleep you require, the primary consideration should be your age. With age comes increased needs for restful slumber - something which usually happens naturally rather than as an indicator of any health problems.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends that infants and young children should receive 10-13 hours of restful sleep each night; school-age kids need 9-11 hours; teens 8-10; while adults should aim for seven to nine. Furthermore, this organization suggests adults establish a consistent bedtime and wake-up time, even on weekends; this helps develop an established pre-sleep routine and allow the body to settle into deep, restful slumber at the right moment.
As part of your efforts to determine whether or not you are getting enough sleep, it is a good idea to pay close attention to how you feel throughout the day. Pay particular attention to energy levels, stress management techniques and mood impacts due to lack of restful slumber each night. In addition to tracking how you feel it is also important to note any signs of poor quality sleep such as needing multiple power naps each day or waking during the night and/or snoring loudly or feeling exhausted all of the time.
How Much Deep Sleep Should You Aim For? Deep or slow-wave sleep is when most of the body's repair processes occur. At this stage, growth hormones are released by your brain while bone tissue repairs itself and tissues heal themselves. For maximum effectiveness of deep sleeping sessions, aim for five or six cycles each night of deep sleeping.
REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is vital for memory formation, dreaming, and emotional processing. Typically accounting for 20-25% of your total nightly cycle, it should comprise at least one full REM cycle every night in order to maximize its effects on you.
If you aren't meeting your recommended sleep goals, speaking to your physician could be beneficial. They can diagnose any conditions which might be hindering restful slumber and provide effective solutions that can help bring relief.
