How Many Hours of Sleep do Adults Need to Live Longer?

Sleep is amazing. While you sleep, your body and your brain carry out hundreds of essential tasks that cannot be performed during the wake time.

It is not only us humans who need sleep. It is a trait shared across all living organisms, even an ancient cyanobacteria, an ancestor of all plants and animal species needs a daily rest to survive, thrive. But how much?

Let’s see what the science says about sleep duration. After having studied millions of people, how many hours of sleep do adults need to live longer. Ready to hear the facts?

For brain health, studies show that the lowest risk for developing problems with thinking and remembering is found in adults who get 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night.
 Regarding diabetes risk, 7 to 8 hours of sleep also shows the lowest risk. Note, that sleeping 5 hours or less increases your risk by almost 50%.
 For heart health, once again, 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night is clearly the best. Those sleeping less than 5 hours each night are three times more likely to experience a stroke compared to those sleeping 7 hours. Here it is important to note that sleeping longer than 9 hours doubles the risk.

To conclude, all these key aspects in health provide uniform evidence that adults should aim to get 7 to 8 hours of quality sleep each night. Children and teens need more, children on average 9-11 hours and teens an average of 9 hours.

With less than the needed sleep your body and your brain can only do the most essential maintenance - not everything. Imagine a car that never gets fully serviced. For a while it will work, but one day, problems arise, and your journey gets seriously troubled. Fully serviced...your body and brain will not only take you further and serve you longer, but you can enjoy the journey much more!

So get enough sleep and be the better version of you!

Thanks for reading!

Oliver