Sleep is essential for optimal health. The American Sleep Medicine Association and the Sleep Research Society have reached a consensus on the amount of sleep recommended for adults.
Therefore, for optimal health, adults should sleep seven or more hours per night. If sleep is less than seven hours, it is associated with certain health effects, including weight gain and obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and stroke, depression, and increased risk of mortality. Less than seven hours of sleep leads to increased pain and risk of injury. Of course, even if a young adult sleeps for more than nine hours, this routine may also be associated with the occurrence of health problems.
Many of us are worried about either sleeping too much or too less. In this regard, the American Sleep Medicine Association and the Sleep Research Society have conducted a study that responds to our puzzles: how much sleep do we need?
Healthy sleep requires adequate duration, quality but also to be done regularly and, eventually, on a fixed schedule. Otherwise, lack of sleep can lead to certain conditions. Sleep duration is generally measured in relation to health. Moreover, the US Department of Health and Human Services has launched an initiative called Healthy People 2020. The purpose of it is to “increase the proportion of adults who have enough hours of sleep.” Thus, 15 experts in sleep medicine and researchers took part in the study which shows the amount of sleep recommended for a healthy life, in the case of adults aged 18 to 60 years.
Experts have published scientific data on the relationship between sleep and health, resulting in 5,314 scientific articles. At the same time, they focused on nine health categories that are closely related to sleep: general health, cardiovascular health, metabolic health, mental health, immunological functions, human performance, cancer, pain, and mortality. This whole process took place over a period of 12 months.
Current information talks about general recommendations for getting seven or more hours of sleep per night for optimal health for adults aged 18 to 60 years. Individual slep requirements are influenced by genetic, behavioral, medical, and environmental factors.
