The question of how much sleep a person needs, has the science already for decades. Many studies have already thrown a look in the German’s bedroom, to find out how much time the average German spends asleep. According to a representative study by the Robert Koch Institute from the year of 2013, 81.6% of the respondents slept between six and eight hours, 12.3 per cent less than six hours, and 6.1 percent more than eight hours. All studies have in common that the average German sleeps around seven hours. But is that enough?
The response of the medicine is simple and banal: It must be so much sleep that we feel awake and rested and ideally without an alarm clock to Wake up. Us experts Sleeping are not interested in how much our patients sleep at night. But how to do it for you on the day. If you feel awake and rested, able to focus, emotional balance, and during the day, not with fatigue attacks, to fight, and then the sleep was enough.
Sleep: The ideal duration is genetically determined
This Text is an abridged excerpt from the book “sleep works wonders” by Dr. Hans-Günter -. Appeared in the Droemer publishing house. 336 pages. 16,99 Euro.
– Is a Board member of the German society for sleep research and sleep medicine and works as the Director of the sleep center at the Palatine hospital in Klingenmünster.
This means that some people do actually with less sleep and others need more of this precious Good. Flat rate, for all valid statements are not possible and also not legitimate, because the sleep duration is determined mostly genetically. In most people, the genetic need to sleep between six and eight hours. It does not shake. According to a recent study, a team of researchers to Renata Pellegrino from Philadelphia, the genetic sleep depends on the need with the Gene D2C2. Especially people with a need for sleep less than five hours show typical changes in this gen There are so in fact, the short sleepers. You have all the same relaxing deep sleep as long sleepers, and in this sense, as the more efficient sleeper. Long sleepers have, in turn, due to the duration of a little more superficial sleep, the more REM sleep we need for learning and memory processes and mood stability of the day. But I have to stifle equal to any hopes of the long sleeper in the Bud: There is no scientific evidence that long sleepers are the smarter people. We agree on the following: Just as there are large and small people, there are Long and short sleepers. Neither the one nor the other is better, and because it also has something to do with the genetics, we can not from our skin.
Nevertheless, the American National Sleep Foundation, a non-profit American research organization has presented in 2015, recommendations on how much the person should sleep. In principle, the research group agreed that the human need for sleep is influenced by many factors, and blanket statements difficult. Since the sleep for the human health but is an elementary function, it was decided, however, recommendations for the optimal number of sleep hours for different age groups.
Consequently, newborns should sleep until the third month of life 14 to 17 hours per day; thereafter until the eleventh month of twelve to 15 hours, and in the first and second age of eleven to 14 hours. For pre-school children up to the age of five, the researchers recommend ten to 13 hours of sleep for school children up to the age of 13 years, at least nine to eleven hours. Teenagers between 14 and 17 years of age should treat themselves regularly for eight to ten hours a night’s sleep. Adults come with seven to nine hours of sleep, and older people aged 65 years and over with seven to eight hours.
Recommendations for sleep duration need not be slavishly adhered to
Adults with less than seven hours of sleep according to these research data at an increased risk for Obesity, Diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, depression and increased mortality. In addition, the risk for a weakening of the immune system and an increase in the perception of pain increases.
Such recommendations for amount of Sleep in the various stages of life offer a good orientation how much sleep can be useful, so that body and mind can regenerate. The seven hours of sleep for an adult but are not what one would have to slavishly keep. Because, in order to emphasize it again: It’s not about the absolute number of hours that each must sleep. Rather, everyone needs as much sleep as it is pretending to be his genes for the respective age. Whether it is five, seven, nine, or ten hours, is secondary. All the genetic short sleeper, with a need for sleep less than seven hours of may breathe a sigh of relief. You don’t have to change your sleep behavior.
