How much sleep do you need? What the NHS says by age, and how to tell if you are short

How many hours of sleep do you need?

The NHS gives sleep needs as averages, and starts with a caution: everyone needs different amounts of sleep.¹ On average, adults need 7 to 9 hours, children need 9 to 13 hours, and toddlers and babies need 12 to 17 hours.¹

The NHS gives a simple test for adults too. You probably do not get enough sleep if you are constantly tired during the day.¹ That matters because a number on a chart cannot tell you how well rested you are. How you feel can.

What do babies, toddlers and young children need?

For the youngest babies the NHS stresses that every baby is different, and that it is highly unlikely a newborn will sleep through the night because their small stomachs mean they need to be fed.² Between 3 and 6 months, some babies sleep for 8 hours or longer at night, but not all do.²

If you are worried about a child's sleep, a health visitor or GP is the place to start, not a chart.

Do you sleep less as you get older?

The NHS page read for this guide gives one band for adults, 7 to 9 hours, and does not set a separate figure for older adults.¹ What does change with age is the shape of the night.

A meta-analysis in the journal Sleep by Ohayon and colleagues pooled 65 studies of healthy people aged 5 to 102. In adults, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, the percentage of slow-wave sleep and the percentage of REM sleep all decreased with age. Time to fall asleep, the percentage of lighter stage 1 and stage 2 sleep, and time awake after sleep onset increased.⁴ The authors add that only sleep efficiency kept falling after age 60, and that how carefully the participants were screened changed the size of these effects.⁴

In plain terms, a lighter and more broken night is common as people get older. It is not, by itself, a sign that something is wrong. A sudden change, or tiredness that goes on for weeks, is worth raising with your GP.

How do you work out how much you actually sleep?

Time in bed and time asleep are not the same. A band or a sleep diary can tell you the gap.

A worked example

Say you go to bed at 11pm and get up at 6.30am. That is 7 hours 30 minutes in bed, or 450 minutes. If it takes you 20 minutes to fall asleep and you are awake for 30 minutes in total in the night, you slept 450 minus 50, which is 400 minutes, or 6 hours 40 minutes. That is below the NHS adult average of 7 to 9 hours, even though your time in bed looked fine. The times are invented to show the arithmetic.

To reach 7 hours (420 minutes) with the same 50 minutes awake, you would need 470 minutes in bed, which is 7 hours 50 minutes. So the bedtime would be 10.40pm for the same 6.30am alarm.

A wellness band can do the logging for you. It estimates when you fell asleep and woke from movement and heart signals. Treat total time asleep as the most reliable figure, and treat any stage labels as rough.

What does the NHS suggest for sleeping better?

The NHS says insomnia usually gets better by changing your sleeping habits.¹ Its list of things to do for adults is:

• Only go to bed when you are sleepy.¹
• Wake up and get out of bed at the same time every day.¹
• Relax for at least an hour before bed, for example with a bath or a book.¹
• Keep the bedroom dark and quiet, using curtains, blinds, an eye mask or ear plugs if needed.¹
• Exercise regularly during the day, and keep the mattress, pillows and covers comfortable.¹

And the things to avoid:

• Smoking, alcohol, tea or coffee for at least 6 hours before bed.¹
• A big meal late at night.¹
• Exercise within 4 hours of bed.¹
• Television or phones right before bed, because the blue light makes you more awake.¹
• Napping in the day, and sleeping in after a bad night.¹

The NHS also notes that you can buy sleeping aids at a pharmacy. It says they cannot cure insomnia but may help you sleep better for 1 to 2 weeks, should not be taken for longer, and may make you drowsy. It advises checking with your doctor before taking anything for sleep problems.¹

For the recovery side of sleep, see the guide to heart rate variability. For your heart overnight, see normal resting heart rate.

When is it more than a bad night?

The NHS says to see a GP if changing your sleeping habits has not helped, if you have had trouble sleeping for months, or if your insomnia is affecting your daily life so that it is hard to cope.¹ Insomnia that lasts less than 3 months is short-term, and 3 months or longer is long-term.¹

A GP will try to find the cause. Sometimes the offer is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), face to face or through an online programme. The NHS says GPs now rarely prescribe sleeping pills, because they can have serious side effects and you can become dependent on them.¹

Loud snoring, gasping or choking noises, or breathing that stops and starts can point to sleep apnoea. The NHS says to see a GP if you notice these, or if you always feel very tired during the day. It adds that it can help to ask someone to watch you sleep, and to bring them to the appointment.³ Testing is done through a specialist sleep clinic, usually with devices worn overnight, often at home.³ A wellness band cannot make this judgement.

Frequently asked questions