Demand for sleep is an individual matter. Although on some nights we "get rid" and others sleep much longer, the average total number of sleeps per week or month is usually constant and characteristic for a given person. It is believed that the weekly deviation tolerance in this range is only 1.5 hours.
Everyone needs 8 hours of sleep?
Most sleep researchers and observers report an average of 8 hours of sleep as a necessary adult. However, it should be remembered that the length of sleep does not determine whether we feel sleepy, reconditioned or refreshed. Sometimes, even a 10-hour sleep does not give you rest. According to American studies, it is believed that two adults in ten require six hours or even less sleep, while one in ten must sleep more than 9 hours. The amount of sleep is therefore an individual matter. But at the same time variable in different periods of life.
Skylarks and owls
This is how people are defined depending on sleep preferences. "Skowronki" or otherwise called "early birds" are people who wake up spontaneously, early in the morning. They feel fresh and refreshed immediately. Their mental fitness is greatest early in the morning, and in the evening they feel tired and exhausted. They usually go before midnight and therefore reluctantly participate in nocturnal escapades and prefer to sleep over many events. Their opposite is "owls". Full of energy and vitality in the evening, they are sometimes called "morning mourners" due to the slow development in the first hours of the day. People with an injured type of activity react badly in a situation of shift work and other sleep disturbances.
A dream of elderly people
It is generally believed that older people need less sleep. However, this is not entirely consistent with scientific observations. In the adult period of life, however, the individual length changes slightly. The fact that the older people have more "timid" prices is undoubtedly a fact. They sleep more alertly and often less effectively. Noise and other disturbances after the age of 50 raise sleep faster. Frequent waking up at night can give the impression that the night was completely sleepless. In the elderly, fairly frequent naps during the day can shorten the night's sleep.
Children's dream
Newborns sleep about 17 hours a day. At the age of 6, they only need 14 hours on average. Ten-year-old sleeps 10 hours on average. After puberty, the individual needs for sleep are set and it ranges from 7.5 g to 8.5 hours of sleep per night.
Sleep during the day
Young children and elderly people sometimes sleep during the day. In the Mediterranean countries there is a so-called siesta culture, consisting of a short nap at noon. During studies on spontaneous sleep and wakefulness in people isolated from the outside world in deep caves, it was established that subjects subjected to experiments exhibited a natural propensity to take a nap during the day. In addition, the so-called an ultrasound rhythm of sleep and wakefulness. Readiness to fall asleep increases in rhythm every 4 hours and will appear around 9, 13 and 17. Each of us has a biological clock, which in the case of isolation from the rhythm of day and night sets its own internal daily for about 24.7 - 25.2 hours . The daily rhythms of our body depend on two factors: our biological clock and external synchronizers. At the base of the brain, just above the visual intersection, there is a group of nerve cells called the "nucleus of the intersection". It is our internal chronometer. The functions of external synchronizers perform signals from the environment.Within them, the phase of day and night, light and dark are the most important. The rhythms of the diurnal and ultrasound rhythms of sleep and waking are reflected in changes in the rhythm of the temperature of the human body. During the day it is higher and decreases during the night.
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Doctor of Medicine Janusz Krzyżowski
Psychiatrist
Private office tel. 22 833 18 68
00-774Warszawa, Dolna 4 lok. 15
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