In a different study at the University of California, San Diego, researchers broke adult sleep patterns down into two groups. Long sleepers slept more than eight hours and short sleepers slept less than seven hours. Both of these groups reported more problems with their sleep than those who slept in a consistent range of seven to eight hours a night. Their research also showed that women tend to be long sleepers compared to men, which can result in issues around falling asleep, middle of the night internal wake-up calls, getting up earlier than normal, and feeling tired throughout the day.
Who Needs What?
The NSF developed a sleep needs spectrum according to age, but they recommend trying different hours of sleep each night to see which mornings you feel the most refreshed. (Try skipping the alcohol the night before and caffeine the next day for best results.)
Their recommendations are:
- Newborns (one to two months old): 10.5–18 hours
- Infants (three to eleven months old): 9–12 hours during the night, and thirty minute to two-hour naps one to four times a day
- Toddlers (one to three years old): 12–14 hours
- Preschoolers (three to five years old): 11–13 hours
- School-aged children (five to twelve years old): 10–11 hours
- Teens (eleven to seventeen years old): 8.5–9.25 hours
- Adults (seventeen on up): 7–9 hours
