How Much Sleep Do You Need? » Higher Level Living

I talk a lot about our waking hours on this blog and some of the best ways to spend them (like carving out time for personal growth, self-reflection, and ways to live your very best life), but rarely do I mention the importance of the hours we spend sleeping!

Do you know that your IQ drops lower when you are sleep deprived than when you are drunk? My mind was blown when I first learned this!

So to take your life to Higher Levels, an easy start is to give you and your body the proper amount of sleep each night! Proper sleep not only energizes you but it allows your brain and cells to recharge. This is important for your mental clarity, capacity, and overall health.

So how many hours a night is enough? Well, it depends on a lot of factors…

What researchers do know is that the amount of sleep you need decreases with age. The older we get the less sleep we need. Moreover, they also know that different factors like pregnancy, aging, sleep deprivation, and sleep quality also play a role in how many hours you should be in bed (Mayo Clinic).

When we are born, we need 14-17 hours of sleep! Could you imagine doing that as an adult?! The average adult needs around 7-9 hours of sleep to feel and perform their absolute best, but there are some key questions you can ask yourself in order to determine if you are getting enough sleep.

#1 How Long Does it Take You to Fall Asleep?

Ideally, you should fall asleep in 15-20 minutes after getting in bed. Factors like anxiety, caffeine, when you last exercised, a large meal, screentime, or too much sleep may make it hard to fall asleep at night. On the other hand, if you instantly fall asleep after crawling into bed, that may be a sign you aren’t getting enough sleep (sleep).

#2 Do you Use an Alarm to Wake Up?

If you use an alarm to wake up, you may be able to use how your body interacts with it as a signal of not enough sleep or too much sleep. If you find yourself waking up multiple times throughout the night, your body may be signaling it has had enough sleep, but if you struggle to get out of bed when your alarm goes off, it’s likely you aren’t getting to sleep early enough. We sleep in cycles so when you are in a healthy sleep habit, your body will naturally rise each morning even without an alarm clock.

#3 How do You Feel During the Day?

I talked about all the ways that sleep can impact your performance and mood throughout the day. Take some time to analyze how you feel during the day. If you are constantly exhausted, you may not be getting enough sleep at night. Vice versa, if you feel energized and capable throughout the day, your sleep schedule is likely sufficient!

I hear crazy stories of people saying they stay up all night and get three hours of sleep! Even if you feel fine after only a few hours of shut-eye, research shows that people who get little sleep repetitively are shown to perform worse when it comes to complex mental tasks. Also if you think you are performing well on that little sleep imagine what you would be capable of with proper sleep!

There is also something called sleep debt. Sleep debt is similar to overdrawing your bank account. If you get too little sleep, your body will demand you to make up for it. It also appears that we can’t “train” our bodies to need less sleep. You may get used to feeling groggy and sleep-deprived, but your judgment, reaction time, and other functions will still be impaired.

Believe it or not, your body is hard at work while you sleep. Sleep is when you recover from the day. Sleep is when your body rebuilds muscles, sheds the yuck from your brain, processes emotions and events, and regulates your internal clock (healthline). This is why getting enough sleep is essential to living your best life! So, tell me in the comments, are you getting enough sleep?

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