Sleep how much

Improving sleep quality may be helped by better sleep habits or being diagnosed and treated for any sleep disorder you may have. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link.

Sleep and Sleep Disorders. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Minus Related Pages. A sleep cycle consists of five stages. During NREM sleep, our brain smoothly transitions from being awake to being deeply asleep while our body restores energy and repairs itself. If you wake up at the beginning of the cycle — that is, at stage 1 or 2 of NREM sleep — you are likely to feel fresh and rested rather than groggy and cloudy-headed , even if you have slept less than the recommended number of hours.

Sleep inertia is a state of incomplete awakening during which your cognitive performance is impaired. All people experience it right after waking up. When you wake up from light sleep, it may last about 15 minutes. But when you wake up from the deep sleep stage, you may feel sleepy, disoriented, and unable to perform even simple everyday tasks for several hours. Now, the REM stage is interesting too. During REM sleep, your brain processes the information, restores, and clears out the byproducts of its activity during the day.

However, if you wake up right in the middle of it, you may still experience prolonged sleep inertia. Still, it will likely be not as severe as when you are awakened from non-REM deep sleep.

With all of that being said, the best time to wake up to avoid prolonged sleep inertia is:. It can also be helpful to bring with you to the doctor if you have ongoing sleep problems.

Eric Suni has over a decade of experience as a science writer and was previously an information specialist for the National Cancer Institute. His research and clinical practice focuses on the entire myriad of sleep disorders. Learn more about the causes and underlying mechanisms of REM rebound, a phenomenon in which a person temporarily experiences more…. Microsleep is a phenomenon in which a person falls asleep for 15 seconds or less.

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The Sleep Foundation editorial team is dedicated to providing content that meets the highest standards for accuracy and objectivity. Our editors and medical experts rigorously evaluate every article and guide to ensure the information is factual, up-to-date, and free of bias.

Updated March 10, Written by Eric Suni. Medically Reviewed by Dr. Abhinav Singh. How Were the Recommendations Created? The recommended sleep times are broken down into nine age groups. Age Range Recommended Hours of Sleep Newborn months old hours Infant months old hours Toddler years old hours Preschool years old hours School-age years old hours Teen years old hours Young Adult years old hours Adult years old hours Older Adult 65 or more years old hours.

Your privacy is important to us. Was this article helpful? Yes No. Hirshkowitz, M. National Sleep Foundation's sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary.

Sleep health, 1 1 , 40— Consensus Conference Panel, Watson, N. Paruthi, S. Chaput, J. Sleeping hours: what is the ideal number and how does age impact this?.

Nature and science of sleep, 10, — S 5. MedlinePlus [Internet]. Healthy sleep; [updated Apr 30; reviewed Apr 26; cited Jun 18]. Learn more about How Sleep Works. Updated By Eric Suni March 10,