The Right Time to go to Bed Has Been Named

In the long run, lack of sleep has been linked to a wide range of health problems. While regular sleep deprivation may be normal for you, it’s sleep deprivation and its physical, emotional, and cognitive effects can take a toll on you in the short and long term.

You will have less energy throughout the day, excessive sleepiness that makes it hard to concentrate, your reaction time will be impaired, you may have irritability and mood problems, and it can impair your memory, decision-making, and problem-solving abilities.

All of this can interfere with your performance at work or school, make you unhappy, and put you at risk of an accident. In the long term, lack of sleep has been linked to a wide range of health problems, from weight gain and obesity to diabetes, heart disease, and other cardiovascular problems.

Mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, and reduced quality of life, are less commonly reported as a result of sleep deprivation. You don’t need to be an expert on the stages of the sleep cycle, but it’s important to understand that you need to go through all four stages – non-rapid eye movement, light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement sleep.

NREM and REM are thought to be the phases most associated with the feeling of “freshness” you experience after a good night’s sleep.

How much sleep do you need?

According to the National Institutes of Health, most adults need six to nine hours of sleep each night. Newborn babies need 14 to 17 hours, and when they are 4 to 11 months old, it drops to 12 to 15. Toddlers need 11 to 14 hours of sleep, and children aged three to five years need 10 to 13 hours. Children aged 6 to 13 need 9 to 11 hours, and adolescents need 8 to 10 hours.

The reason why it is difficult to determine the exact amount of time for each age group is that everyone needs slightly different amounts of time to function properly. The charity Sleep Charity explains that the amount of sleep you need depends on your age, gender, health, and other factors.

Sometimes we can sleep for eight hours, but still, feel tired, and there’s a reason for that. Sleep quality is more important than sleep quantity because it determines how rested we feel when we wake up. If you slept long enough, but your sleep was interrupted, it means that you did not go through all four stages of sleep enough times.

Trial and error is the best way to find out how much sleep works best for you. For example, write down how much sleep you got one night and then how you feel the next day.

Once you find the right time for you to sleep, stick to it, establishing a regular bedtime wherever possible.

However, if you need guidance, Healthline’s sleep calculator will calculate a bedtime based on the time you wake up and that you have completed five or six 90-minute sleep cycles, allowing you to fall asleep within 15 minutes:

• If you need to wake up at 4 a.m., you need to go to bed at 8:15 p.m. (five cycles and 7.5 hours of sleep) or 6:45 p.m. (6 cycles and nine hours of sleep).
• If you wake up at 4:30 am, you should go to bed at 8:45 pm (five cycles and 7.5 hours of sleep) or 7:15 pm (6 cycles and nine hours of sleep).
• If you need to wake up at 5 am, you should go to bed at 9:15 pm (five cycles and 7.5 hours of sleep) or 7:45 pm (6 cycles and nine hours of sleep).
• If you wake up at 5:30 am, you should go to bed at 9:45 pm (five cycles and 7.5 hours of sleep) or 8:15 pm (6 cycles and nine hours of sleep).
• If you wake up at 6 am, you should go to bed at 10:15 pm (five cycles and 7.5 hours of sleep) or 8:45 pm (6 cycles and nine hours of sleep).
• If you wake up at 6:30 am, you should go to bed at 10:45 pm (five cycles and 7.5 hours of sleep) or 9:15 pm (6 cycles and nine hours of sleep).
• If you wake up at 7 am, you should go to bed at 11:15 pm (five cycles and 7.5 hours of sleep) or 9:45 pm (6 cycles and nine hours of sleep).
• If you wake up at 7:30 am, you should go to bed at 11:45 pm (five cycles and 7.5 hours of sleep) or 10:15 pm (6 cycles and nine hours of sleep).
• If you wake up at 8 a.m., you should go to bed at 12:15 a.m. (five cycles and 7.5 hours of sleep) or 10:45 p.m. (6 cycles and nine hours of sleep).
• If you need to wake up at 8:30, you should go to bed at 12:45 (five cycles and 7.5 hours of sleep) or 11:15 (6 cycles and nine hours of sleep).
• If you wake up at 9 am, you should go to bed at 1:15 am (five cycles and 7.5 hours of sleep) or 11:30 pm (6 cycles and nine hours of sleep)