How much sleep do you need? You are probably thinking, “more than I already get,” and you are probably right. That four to six hours a night is not enough.

To make things simple, you can use the following chart1 to figure out how much sleep you need:

AgeRecommended Amount of Sleep (Hours per Night)1
6 - 139 - 11 hours
14 - 178 - 10 hours
18 - 257 - 9 hours
26 - 647 - 9 hours
65 and older7 - 8 hours

Some people need more sleep while others need less than the recommended amounts. If you are waking up before your alarm goes off, you probably need less sleep. Conversely, if you are feeling exhausted throughout the day you probably need more sleep!

REFERENCES

  1. Hirshkowitz, M., Whiton, K., Albert, S. M., Alessi, C., Bruni, O., Doncarlos, L., … Hillard, P. J. A. (2015). National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary. Sleep Health, 1(1), 40–43. doi: 10.1016/j.sleh.2014.12.010