Sleep is an important part of your health. Poor sleep is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, depression and anxiety. Regularly getting the recommended hours of sleep helps to improve your attention, learning, memory, emotional regulation, as well as your mental and physical health.
7 to 9 hours of sleep is recommended for young adults and adults, and 7 to 8 hours is recommended for older adults [1]. In healthy younger adults it should take about 10-20 minutes to fall asleep. Waking up briefly is part of normal sleep, but should not take too long or cause you to lose sleep.
Yes, the amount of sleep that you need varies by age. Teenagers typically fall asleep, and wake from sleep later. Older adults tend to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. The recommended hours of sleep by age are as follows:
| Newborns (0-3 months) | 14-17 hours [2] |
| Infants (4-11 months) | 12-16 hours [2]) |
| Toddlers (1-2 years) | 11-14 hours [2]) |
| Preschoolers (3-4) | 10-13 hours [2] |
| School age children (5-13) | 9-11 hours [3] |
| Teenagers (14-17) | 8-10 hours []) |
| Younger adults (18-25) | 7-9 hours [3] |
| Adults (26-64) | 7-9 hours [1] |
| Older adults (65+) | 7-8 hours [1] |
References
[1] Hirshkowitz et al., (2015). National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary. Sleep Health, 1, 40-43.
[2] Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (2017). Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines: for the early years. Retrieved from https://csepguidelines.ca/early-years-0-4/
[3] Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (2016). Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines: for children and youth. Retrieved from https://csepguidelines.ca/children-and-youth-5-17/