Sleep is one of the cornerstones of good health, so you should prioritize your individual slumber needs as much as possible. How to figure out the best time to sleep, based on your sleep needs Here’s an example of how to use a sleep calculator to figure out the best time to go to sleep, based on your preferred wake-up time, allowing 15 minutes to fall asleep, and completing five or six 90-minute sleep cycles:īedtime for 7.5 hours of sleep (5 sleep cycles):īedtime for 9 hours of sleep (6 sleep cycles): What does this mean? Although sleep calculators could provide a handy guide, they’re not guaranteed to work for everyone so shouldn’t be used strictly. Sleep calculators don’t consider how long it can take to fall asleep, either, and many don’t account for waking up during the night. However, some experts claim that sleep calculators are not based on science and are unlikely to work well for everyone because not everyone has the same length of sleep cycles. This will inform when is the best time for you to fall asleep, and when is the best time for you to wake-up based on the end of your final sleep cycle. The sleep calculator will then use this information to work out how many sleep cycles you can fit in during that period of time. All you need to do is input when you want to wake up. Sleep calculators claim to be able to estimate your best time to sleep and wake-up. (Image credit: Getty/Westend61) The best time to sleep and wake-up: How do sleep calculators work? Adult (18 to 60 years): More than 7 hours.School Age (6 to 12 years): 9 to 12 hours.Preschool (3 to 5 years): 10 to 13 hours.Infant (4 to 12 months): 12 to 16 hours.Newborn (0 to 3 months): 14 to 17 hours.But mostly the amount of sleep you need depends on your age, as the CDC’s recommended sleep guidelines for different age groups shows: For example, if you’re pregnant or recovering from an illness you might need more sleep than usual. So if you’re both trying to go to sleep at the same time and trying to get the same amount of sleep, you’ll both be unhappy.” How many hours of sleep do you need, based on age and health?ĭifferent people need different amounts of sleep. “For example, one person’s sleep needs could be on the lower side, while the other has a higher sleep need. “And that’s where a lot of couples struggle,” Dr Browning continues. You may end up thinking you have insomnia. “Or if you’re someone who only needs seven hours a night, but you think you should be getting eight because that’s what everyone says is ‘normal’, then you’ll probably be trying (and failing) to sleep for that extra hour. “The problem is, if you’re a person who needs nine hours sleep a night but you’re only getting eight, that adds up to a one-hour sleep loss every single night.” Dr Browning explains. Eight hours just happens to sit in the middle of the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep. As she explained to us for our feature asking why is sleep important, a lot of our stress around snoozing stems from well-worn sleep myths, including how we all need to get eight hours every night. (Image credit: Getty/Portra Images) Trying to sleep at the same time as your partner might not be bestĭr Lindsay Browning, author of Navigating Sleeplessness (opens in new tab), runs a sleep clinic that deals with common and more complex slumber problems, ranging from chronic insomnia to frequent waking.
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