What is a good night’s sleep? The answer largely depends on how old you are, as the recommended length of sleep varies a lot by age.
Although adults should generally have between seven and nine hours sleep each night, research suggests the following to be largely accurate for most people in the age groups concerned:
Age Recommended amount of sleep
0–3 months 14–17 hours total
4–12 months 12–16 hours total
1–2 years 11–14 hours total
3–5 years 10–13 hours total
9–12 years 9–12 hours total
13–18 years 8–10 hours total
18–60 years 7 hours per night minimum
61–64 years 7–9 hours per night
65 years plus 7–8 hours per night
Note that there are different types of people – referred to as chronotypes – within these groups, who may exhibit different patterns of behaviour; I’ll discuss this later.
Why is sleep important?
What makes sleep so important? A standing joke in my own household is that I can fall asleep on a washing line – much to the annoyance of my wife. Our body knows what it needs. Sleep gives our body the chance to restore itself and our mind an opportunity to reflect and think about things.
Sometimes a so-called “power-nap” of 20-40 minutes around the middle of the day or during the day can really energise you and rebuild your personal resilience to help off-set any gaps in sleep from the previous night. (It’s best to avoid taking a nap late in the afternoon or in the evening as this might affect your sleep that night.)
A key learning point about sleep though, is it’s not like a savings account where you “bank” it and draw down the savings when you miss out on sleep in the future. The approach to sleep has to be one of routine and regularity, as this will help to maintain quantity and, more importantly, quality of sleep.
Issues associated with failing to get adequate sleep include poor cognitive functioning, lower immune response and increased chances of chronic health issues, such as obesity and depression.
For most of us, getting less than six hours sleep at night means our brain will be working at about 30% below its optimum level.
Biological rhythms
Our bodies are controlled by our biological rhythms, of which there are four. These rhythms are the natural cycle of change in our body’s chemicals or functions. It’s like an internal master “clock” in our brains that coordinates the other clocks in your body.
These four rhythms are:
- circadian – the 24-hour cycle that includes physiological and behavioural rhythms like sleeping;
- diurnal – the circadian rhythm synced with day and night;
- ultradian – biological rhythms with a shorter period and higher frequency than circadian rhythms;
- infradian – biological rhythms that last more than 24 hours, such as a menstrual cycle.
The main one of interest to us here is the circadian clock, which plays a physical, mental, and behavioural role that responds to light and dark. This clock helps regulate functions that include sleep, appetite, alertness and reaction times.
Just focussing on sleep here, disruptions to our body clocks, by say shift working, plane travel (jet lag), drinking or eating later in the evening, or watching TV past our normal bed-time will knock our circadian rhythms out of sync.
Sleep patterns and sleep cycles
Sleep patterns run in 90-minute cycles, so a typical adult can work back from this to when they want to get up. For example, if you need 7.5 hours sleep and want to get up at 07.00, you need to be asleep by 23:30 the night before. You’ll know when you’ve got it right when you find yourself waking up just before your alarm goes off.
Sleep cycles have five stages: first the cycle runs through two stages of light sleep, before falling into two stages of deep sleep and finally ending up with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is the restorative stage of sleep and therefore considered to be the best. The quicker you can progress into REM sleep the better your quality of sleep will be.
It’s worth also mentioning here that we fall into different types of behaviour within circadian rhythms, these are called chronotypes. The main two are larks or lions and owls or wolves, their personality traits being reasonably self-evident, although there are also two other recognised types:
- Larks / Lions – rise early, are hungry at breakfast, are alert and motivated in the morning, but focus fades in the evening;
- Owls / Wolves – slow in the morning, prefer to eat later in the day, are productive later in the day and prefer a later bedtime;
- Bears – tend to sleep and wake according to the sun, feel most energetic during the daytime and have no trouble falling asleep at night; their peak productivity occurs in mid-morning and dips during mid-afternoon;
- Dolphins – light sleepers who have difficulty following a regular sleep routine due to waking up more frequently during the night.
We learn to get into a sleep pattern, which is why new parents struggle so much with a new baby which has to learn about light and dark, awake and sleep, and day and night. As we grow, our bodies change through childhood and into teenage years and we quite often see children who are entering their teens wanting to stay up later and sleep in late.
As adults we must exercise the discipline to establish a routine for our children as well as ourselves, so as to preserve wellbeing and help our bodies recover from the day’s events ready for the next day.
I do find when working with clients that the issue of sleep often raises its head, because work and/or family pressures can develop a feeling of stress, which can then affect sleep patterns and exacerbate the impact of stressors.
Mental toughness
This is where I find that the mental toughness 4C’s model can help clients, by addressing behavioural issues such as improving their Control by introducing self-discipline and defining boundaries for work, rest and play, and Commiting themselves to invest time in improving their health and wellbeing.
This in turn will enable them to accept the Challenge of improving their own effectiveness – which can be assisted by a good dose of Confidence or self-belief.
Tips for better sleep
There are some obvious tips to help achieve better sleep and I daresay most people accept or recognise these, although changing this behaviour can be hard and is not always palatable.
1. Avoid alcohol at night, as although it may make you feel relaxed and sleepy it will hamper good sleep.
2. Choose caffeine-free or low-caffeine drinks especially at night, because caffeine will stimulate rather than relax you and – just like alcohol – takes longer to leave your system than you might think.
3. Ensure you finish your evening meal more than three hours before bed, so as to aid digestion and allow your body to process it and start relaxing before bed; and avoid excess snacking at night.
4. Try to become a non-smoker, as consuming smoke or vapes has a major impact on the health of your body as well as affecting your sleep.
5. Television is best avoided before bed and should be banned from bedrooms and technology, such as tablets and mobile phones should be put down an hour before bed time, as watching images and bright colours stimulates the mind rather than relaxes it.
6. Reading a book is a good alternative before bed, as reading isn’t as taxing as digital forms of entertainment.
7. Meditation can aid relaxing and with practice can become an effective tool to help.
8. Get enough daily exercise: 20 minutes or more of aerobic exercise is generally recommended, such as a brisk walk.
9. Create a good environment for sleep, with proper lighting, a comfortable temperature and a supportive mattress.
10. Discover a routine each day that works for you and stick to it.
Looking after yourself and being aware of your body’s sleep needs will help you improve and/or maintain a good standard of wellbeing and enable you to operate as your most effective self.
As with any health condition, if you have concerns about your sleep, consider consulting a trained health professional such as your local GP.
