How much sleep do you need? Throughout a person’s lifespan the amount of sleep required can vary depending on their age. An individual’s lifestyle and health can impact the amount of sleep they require to feel refreshed. As most of us will spend one third of our lives getting a good nights sleep, it is vital to maintain our health and wellbeing. Coffee, external lights, shift work and alarm clocks all disrupt our circadian rhythm, influencing the quality of our sleep. If you are unsure as to how much sleep you should be getting or if the hours you are getting are within a healthy range, there is a guide to help you get the sleep you need.
The National Sleep Foundation recently updated their official recommendations on sleep duration and produced a guideline for how much sleep you need at each age. They organised 18 scientists, each deemed to be experts in their field, to review over 300 current-scientific publications on sleep. The product is an easy to follow guide recommending the amount of sleep required, dependent on the different needs of people at various ages. Although there is no exact amount of sleep for each category, the panel were able to identify an amount of sleep that they could all agree upon. This handy chart includes the minimum and maximum range for each category of what is “recommended” and “not recommended”. The “may be appropriate” category was included to allow for variability in sleep duration between individuals. 
Source: National Sleep Foundation 2016
