‘If you sleep well, you will be in good health’ is a saying that many people have heard. Indeed, maintaining good sleep health has a huge impact on the human body.
Because if you lack sleep for a long time, it is easy to lead to a significant decline in the body’s immunity, which will lead to a significant increase in the incidence of various diseases. So if you want to maximize your body maintenance, what level of sleep should you maintain every night?
The recommendations are given by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society for modern people of different ages are as follows.
Population Age group recommended sleep time (every 24 hours)
Infants 4–12 months, 12–16 hours (including naps)
Toddlers 1-2 years, 11–14 hours (including naps)
Pre-K 3-5 years, 10–13 hours (including naps)
Primary school students 6-12 years old, 9–12 hours
Middle School Adolescents 13-18 years old, 8–10 hours
Adults 18-60 years old, at least 7 hours or more, 8 hours is best
There is a misconception that the elderly are sleep-deprived.
Older people need the same amount of deep sleep, and the better you sleep, the slower you age, the healthier you are, and the less likely you are to get sick. But the elderly tend to have poor sleep quality and lack of deep sleep. Compared to younger people, many older adults have more fragile sleep and are more susceptible to disturbances from light, noise, and pain. At the same time, due to the decrease of melatonin secretion and other reasons, the ability of the elderly to obtain restful deep sleep will decline. Therefore, there is a view in the medical field that the aging of the elderly is more due to the deterioration of health caused by insufficient sleep, rather than the aging of the elderly’s functions.
So what are the adverse consequences of not getting enough sleep for a long time?
1. Depressed
In the case of prolonged lack of sleep, the body will be overworked and the brain will not be able to get effective rest. Over time, it can easily lead to mental and physical problems.
2. Endocrine disorders
Lack of sleep for a long time will also cause very serious adverse effects on endocrine health. Especially if you stay up late and lack sleep frequently, it is easy to cause a serious imbalance of hormone secretion, which will have a great negative impact on your health over time.
3. The incidence of liver and kidney disease has increased significantly
The liver and kidney are the most important metabolic organs in the human body. Once the function is lost, the harm to human health will be enormous. Long-term late sleep and long-term lack of sleep are one of the most important factors that lead to a sharp increase in the incidence of liver and kidney diseases.
At the same time, in addition to this, it is also important to remind everyone that it is not advisable to sleep too short, and sleeping too long is also unhealthy. For example, when the length of sleep per night reaches more than 12 hours, it is likely to induce a variety of adverse symptoms due to the low excitement of the human body, such as dizziness, headache, limb weakness, and sleepiness.
