Sleep Chart for all ages

Have you ever wondered why babies do not sleep throughout the night, or toddlers get afraid of the monsters under their bed? Why teenagers oversleep or grandparents taking many naps in between the day?

Let’s read and find out answers to all the above questions and also learn about the sleeping patterns.

Sleep is more of a naturally recurring state of mind in a human body, which is also known as an altered consciousness. It is also a relative inhibition of almost all the voluntary muscles and a relatively inhibited sensory activity of various organs.

Sleep comes in repeating patterns, two types of sleeping patterns are non-REM and REM sleep

REM and NREM Sleep

REM sleep is known as a certain random movement of the closed eyes from side to side.

NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep is a dreamless sleep. While NREM is on the move, the brain waves of people on the electroencephalographic (EEG) recording come as typically slow and high voltage.

During this process, the heart rate, as well as breathing pace, is relatively slow in people. The blood pressure also becomes low, and the person sleeping becomes relatively still.

Charles Czeisler, a Harvard professor along with other professors conducted a research to know how many hours to sleep according to the age of the individual. There were several studies conducted during the period of 2004 to 2014 and the final results help create the below list.

Sleep Duration Chart

Here we will discuss the sleep duration required by each individual based on their age. “How much sleep do I need”? If this is one question that keeps popping into your mind constantly, then here you will find the answer to it and also the benefits that a good and sound sleep can offer you. Below chart is what we get from getbestmattress, you can know more details there.

                                                 Age                            Sleep duration
INFANT                          4 to 11 months       12 to 15 hours
TEEN                                14 to 17 years         8 to 10 hours
 ADULT                            26 to 64 years           7 to 9 hours
OLDER ADULT                   65+ years                     7 to 8 hours

Infants

Newborn babies from 0 to 3 months require sleeping 14 to 17 hours, babies from 4 to 11 months are required to sleep for 12 to 15 hours. Children from the age of 1 to 2 years require 11 to 14 hours of sleep.

Sleeping on time daily helps the babies between 4 to 11 months of age to fall asleep by themselves. A little exposure to light and noise for the babies during the day as well as night will help them to have a regular sleeping schedule.

Sufficient rest is necessary for babies, as a lot of things go on in their body and brain during these months, which are very crucial. Most of the babies usually spend about half or more of their sleeping time in the Rapid Eye Movement sleep (REM) and another half of the babies spend their sleep time in Non-Rapid Eye Movement sleep (NREM) for each cycle of 50 minutes.

Teenagers

Teens require 8 and 10 hours of sleep between the age group of 14 to 17 years. Between weekdays and weekends sleep patterns will be irregular as they stay awake until late night.

Teens get up late during the mornings as the circadian rhythm of their body shifts late, approximately an hour or so. This circadian shift will bring with it a tendency for sleeping late and waking up late.

Teens, as well as younger adults, usually experience slow wave sleep that is more restorative in nature. But if teens do not get enough sleep during the night, they will find it difficult to be attentive in school.

They will have poor eating habits, they will have aggressive behaviors, it will worsen the acne, or increase stress, anxiety, and depression.

Teens should avoid electronic gadgets at least an hour before their bedtime, so, that they can fall asleep quickly. This is because of blue-wave light that is emitted by TV, phones, PCs, tablets and other gadgets. This is bad for them because of melatonin production.

Adults Sleep

Young adult gets full, restorative and calm sleep. In their early 20s, they get Stage 3 sleep that is deeper and highly restorative. After the early twenties, the adults spend most part of the night with Stage 2 sleep, also called as the middle sleep that is mildly restorative.

As you come out of the teenage and step into adulthood, the sleep pattern for you becomes quite lesser satisfying with lesser restorativeness occurring. And, in this fast-paced life that is currently going on, adults sleep much lesser as compared with before. Sleeping patterns help in the general health as well, and not only on your age.

Women too experience usual disruptions in their sleep all through their adult life, especially during their pregnancies and motherhood, and also during their menopausal age; since all of these factors play an important role in the quality and amount of rest they get.

Aging and Older adults

The circadian clock starts to reverse in adults, as most of them like to wake up very early during the mornings and also sleep early in the night. These changes in the sleeping patterns are quite normal in the aging process.

Health-related issues and also aging hinders the sleep patterns of adults. Sore hips, back and knees, other psychiatric illness and the medications that they take, usually keep people awake. Seniors wake up frequently during nights, removing the regularity of a circadian clock.

Along with age, the body tends to spend much of the time in lighter sleep stages, and so, increase in rest time is required to restore the energy for the next day.

Taking ample of rest should become a part of daily routine. It is important to practice good sleeping habits and hygiene, and also to emphasize its importance to everyone who can help you with developing lifelong healthy sleeping habits.

Did you know?

Lack of sleep is one of the largest risk factors for obesity. If adults are not getting proper sleep of 55% or more, they are likely to be obese worse than the children who are 89% more likely to be obese.

Getting the right amount of sleep improves hormone and better sleep also shows improvement in insulin sensitivity. It raises testosterone levels which will give you more natural energy.

Good sleep improves the immune system, fights from becoming sick and also has a lot of other benefits. If a human sleeps less than 7 hours, he/she is more likely to develop a cold, than those sleeping 8 + hours regularly.

Sound sleep helps improve your learning skills and athletic performance. A good sleep also reduces the risk of developing depression.