How Much Sleep do You Need?

How many times have you heard, "If only I could get a long, solid nights sleep, I would feel so much better."? How much sleep should a person actually be getting each night? The amount of sleep needed each night depends on the person, but also concerns itself with age group. Many people don't take the time to assess how many hours of sleep they need to function at their personal best, they simply know that they don't get enough.

The number of hours needed to sleep is a matter of "circadian rhythm," or the biological clock function which regulates our sleep-wake cycles. Humans are evolved to be "diurnal" creatures, as opposed to nocturnal, that is we are hard-wired to operate at our best during the daytime while sleeping at night.

For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep, although the amount ranges from 5 hours to 10 hours of sleep each day depending on the individual. Despite this information, a recent research study conducted by Boston University School of Medicine found that study participants that reported sleeping less than 6 hours or more than 9 hours a day had an increased incidence of diabetes, compared to those who slept 7-8 hours.

Group

Infants- About 16 hours per day of sleep

Babies and Toddlers-6 months to 3 years: between 10 and 14 hours per day. Young children generally get their sleep from a combination of nighttime sleep and naps.

Children-Ages 3 to 6: between 10 and 12 hours of sleep

Ages 6 to 9: about 10 hours of sleep

Ages 9 to 12: about 9 hours of sleep

Teenagers-About 9 hours of sleep per night. Teens have trouble getting enough sleep not only because of their busy schedules, but also because they are biologically programmed to want to stay up later and sleep later in the morning, which usually doesn’t mesh with school schedules.

Adults-7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each night.

Older Adults-Current thought is that older adults need as much, if not more, sleep than middle-aged adults. Taking a midday nap may help to get a few more hours of sleep in each day.

Sleep Deprivation

Some of the signs of sleep deprivation include difficulty waking up in the morning, lack of concentration, falling asleep during work or class, and feelings of moodiness, irritability, depression, or anxiety. Experts say that if you are falling asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow; need an alarm clock to wake up; or feel the need for frequent naps during the day, it is very likely you are sleep deprived.

Tips and Ideas for Staying Awake

I know not everyone can solve their problems of being tired in a day or even a week. So, I'm going to provide you with some simple but useful tips on staying awake no matter if you are in the classroom, at a work meeting, or at home during a family movie night.

Tips

1. Try and take a break. Get up and walk around every half hour at least. Go get a drink, go to the bathroom, the copy machine, wherever.

2. Avoid stimulants. Commonly, students or workers will drink coffee, soda products, or energy drinks to keep caffeine in their system. However, the more this is used, the more glucose/fructose syrup will enter your body. This ingredient, known as "High Fructose Corn Syrup" on most soda drinks, will coat your mouth and tongue with a thin layer of syrup which holds on to sugars and flavors in the drink, giving you a taste of the drink all day and possibly forming an addiction. Caffeine has both pros and cons. The reason why caffeine makes us alert is for many reasons, one of them being that it constricts the blood vessels. A safe alternative to caffeine or sugary drinks is an apple *and it's healthier :) *.

3. Multi-task. Doing one thing for a long period of time will make you zone out and fall asleep easier.

4. Create goals for yourself. Breaking longer tasks into ones small enough to be finished in one focused single-task session will allow you to feel successful throughout the day. The feeling of success will wake you up. I typically make a list of things to do for the day or the next couple of days and when I accomplish one of them I cross it off the list. Every time I cross something off of the list, I feel like I've accomplished something and am ready to take on the next task.

5. Realize that you may not be as tired as you think you are. Often times you'll find that throughout the day, you can't stop thinking about the next time you get to go to sleep. Once you're off work, you will usually find yourself awake and alert, ready to enjoy the rest of the day. Notice this "convenient" psychological contribution that your mind is making.

6. Drink a lot of water. Fill up your coffee mug with water throughout the day. This kills two birds with one stone: first, you get your required intake of water which is beneficial to your health. Second, this guarantees you needing to get up every half hour to go to the bathroom.

7. When drinking beverages with caffeine in them, be aware that caffeine is more effective if you consume frequently in small amounts.

8. Don't eat a huge lunch. 'Food Coma' is not a good thing when you are leading a 2:00 pm meeting or have an afternoon exam.

A Couple of Warnings

**Consuming too much caffeine to stay awake at work may disrupt your sleep pattern.

**Don't try to get too clever in multitasking or you will quickly get overwhelmed, tired, panicky and not want to do anything. Instead, after multitasking for a while to adjust your time management it may be better to just focus on one task at a time.

What Causes Us to Feel Tired?

Before any problem can be fixed, it is important to understand the problem. In this case, feeling sleepy or tired is the symptom of fatigue. To start things off, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about some of the causes of feeling tired and define exactly fatigue means.

According to Webster's dictionary, the definition of fatigue is weariness or exhaustion from labor, exertion, or stress. Everyone feels tired at some point but most usually feel back to normal with a good night's sleep and some quality R&R. Unfortunately, this is not the case for everyone and tiredness can become a chronic problem which affects their daily life. Roughly 1 in 10 people are affected by extreme tiredness throughout various age groups. The majority of these people are college students and those working desk jobs.

As I was looking up information on the topic I found a helpful website published by the BUPA's Health Information Team. It broke down the causes of excessive tiredness into three main categories: physical, emotional, and lifestyle.

Physical Causes
-Feeling physically tired can seem like a never ending cycle. When you feel physically tired, you do not want to do physical activity. Avoiding physical activity causes your body to become sluggish, in turn making you feel even more fatigue. This is typically a difficult rut to get out of but is necessary in order to get yourself back on the right track. Being a college student, I know it is difficult to get into a regular exercise routine. I can always think of reasons not to go, but once I'm done I'm happy I went.

-Another physical factor to persistent tiredness has to do with weight. If you think about it, this is a simple concept. If a person is overweight, their body must work extra hard in order to perform typical tasks, making them tire easier. On the opposite end of the spectrum, an underweight person has low muscle mass and strength which could possibly lead to premature fatigue.

Emotional Causes

-Stress from work deadlines, relationships, among plenty of other issues can be quite emotionally draining. These stressful feelings only increase when a solution to the problem is nowhere in sight or is the situation is simply out of your hands. Many people have a hard time coping with stressful situations and find themselves unable to sleep at night. This directly affects their mental and physical states along with their emotions. It is unavoidable to steer away from stress, but learning how to deal with it will lead to a much more stable emotional state.

-Depression and high levels of anxiety also wear you down and may be linked to chronic fatigue.

Lifestyle Causes

-Some examples of lifestyle causes to fatigue may be job related. For example, working or studying at odd hours of the night may cause a person to feel like they can never get a restful night's sleep.

-Parents with small children who do not sleep well through the night cause stress and disturbed sleep.

-Taking naps during the day can cause a person to not sleep well at night.

-Drinking caffeine or alcohol two or less hours before going to bed can make it difficult to fall asleep or once you do fall asleep it may be an unrestful night's rest.

Introduction

Hey everyone. Welcome to Sarah's blog. Do you tend to feel like there aren't enough hours in the day? I do. Being a college student, I seem to always be in a crunch for time. Between the school work, among plenty of other tasks, and spending time with friends I find minimal time to sleep and have down time to relax. I tend to fall into the daily grind of staying up too late only to rise by the annoying sound of my alarm clock very early the next morning. I go though my day feeling sluggish and can only think about when I'll get to sleep next. Sound familiar? If the answer to that question is yes, this blog is for you. What can be done to get more accomplished thoughout the day without falling asleep at the desk? Hopefully this blog will provide you insight to a more structured day and improve upon bad habits of procrastination.