What is the recommended hours of sleep for the average adult?
Experts recommend 7–9 hours a day. But the most common reason we hear for the lack of sleep is – there’s too much to do and not enough time to do it! So one goes to bed a little later or get up a little earlier in an effort to fit a few more things into one’s packed-full day.
The effects of inadequate sleep are often subtle and seem insignificant. But over an extended period of time, it can cause serious health problems! Something that one may not even associate with their long term inadequate sleep.
With sleep deprivation, your immune system doesn’t have a chance to build up its forces. Inadequate sleep has been linked to headaches, weight gain, depression, and memory loss. If we don’t get enough sleep, our bodies are less likely to fend off invaders, and it could take us longer to recover from an illness.
Long-term sleep deprivation may also raise our risk of developing chronic problems such as cardiovascular diseases or diabetes, affects our mental and physical health, and can dramatically lower our quality of life. In fact, one Harvard Medical School study reported that sleeping less than five hours a night increases the risk of death from all causes by about 15 percent.