Kevin Ebrahimoff

Sleep Needs by Age

Sleep scientists have evaluated sleep needs of numerous age groups. As one’s age increases the need for sleep decreases by one or two hours. The numbers represented are averaged and rounded up to the nearest whole number.

Sleep disorders are considered by the CDC as a public health crisis. Lack of sleep can cause or contribute to mental health disorders, reaction time, brain development, concentration, etc. The proper amount of sleep depends on one’s age; infants require nearly twice the amount of sleep as adults do. I believe comparing these graphs to the average amount of sleep people actually get is beneficial to understand the extent of the public health crisis as you can visually difference between the recommended amount of time people should be sleeping with the amount of time people are actually sleeping.