You spend about one third of your life sleeping, which equates to around 26 years for the typical American. That’s about 230,000 hours. Seems like a lot, doesn’t it?
That is a lot when you’re looking at it as a single event, but since this is spread out across every single day you’re alive, it’s quite normal. In fact, knowing the average amount of sleep to get over a lifetime is just the beginning.
Getting a great amount of total sleep each night is first a matter of knowing how much of each stage of sleep to get. This blog post unpacks all of the latest recommendations pertaining to the question, “How much sleep should you get?”
How Much Deep Sleep Should You Get?
The right amount of deep sleep to get each night is between about one hour and two hours for most people. This amount of time doesn’t happen consecutively, though.
There are four stages of sleep your body goes through every night. Here’s a little bit more about each stage in detail:
- Stage 1, NREM sleep: Stage one of sleep is when you’re starting to ease out of consciousness. If you hear a loud noise or someone tries to wake you up, you’ll usually wake up without much delay.
- Stage 2, NREM sleep: This is when you’ve fallen asleep. Your body’s core temperature begins dropping and your heart rate is slowing down. Your mind is producing sleep spindles which are a key component of memory production and processing.
- Stage 3, NREM sleep: This is the deep sleep stage. During this phase, your muscles are fully relaxed, your heart rate and core temperature are the lowest for sleep, and it’s difficult to wake up. If you do wake up or someone tries to, you’ll often feel like you’re coming out of a mental haze.
- Stage 4, REM sleep: This is the final phase of a typical sleep cycle and also what’s called rapid eye movement, or REM sleep. During this stage, your eyes are moving rapidly left and right while still closed. REM sleep is necessary for memory retention and cognitive ability.
About 13 to 23 percent of your total time sleeping is deep sleep if you’re getting healthy sleep each night. In most instances, this is about 20 to 35 minutes after you initially fall asleep and one or two times afterward.
How Much Deep Sleep Should You Get Each Night?
If you sleep for eight hours per night on average, that comes out to about 60 to 110 minutes of deep sleep per night. Deep sleep typically occurs around the one hour mark and 3.25 hour mark of a normal, healthy, eight-hour sleep cycle.
If you get a little bit less or a little more, that won’t disrupt the rest of your sleep cycle. But if you’re only getting 30 minutes or more than two hours of deep sleep each night, that’s worth investigating. If the issue persists more than a few days, consider speaking with a sleep specialist about it.
If you’re under the age of 30, it’s normal to get more deep sleep each night–around the two hour mark. As you approach the age of 65, it’s normal to get less deep sleep. Older individuals may only get 30 minutes of deep sleep per night, if any at all.
Deep sleep is where most of the body’s repair work occurs. When your body has entered this stage, it’s ready to repair and build muscle, release growth hormones, revitalize your immune system, and repair broken tissue and bone.
How Much REM Sleep Should You Get?
About 90 minutes of your total nightly sleep cycle should be REM sleep. That equates to about 20 to 25% of your entire evening if you average seven to eight hours of sleep per night.
Getting enough REM sleep each night is crucial for memory development, dreaming, brain development, and emotional processing. Although dreams can occur during multiple stages of sleep, most people report their most vivid and memorable dreams during REM sleep.
How Much of Each Stage of Sleep Should You Get?
Reading about each stage of sleep can make it a little confusing to keep track of it all. Between how long it should take to fall asleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep, are they all equally important or should you focus on one over the other? How much sleep do you need to get in each stage for a healthy cycle overall?
Sleep experts categorize a total sleep cycle (which repeats about four to six times per night) into four or five categories. Here’s how much sleep you should get in each stage:
How Much Stage 1 Sleep to Get
You only need about five to 10 minutes of stage one “sleep,” which is really when your mind is preparing to be fully asleep. This is the stage where your body’s core temperature begins to drop and your heart rate slows down.
If it takes longer than 20 minutes to completely fall asleep, there are several potential causes. Here are the most common causes of an inability to fall asleep naturally:
- Lack of exercise
- Too much stress
- Light(s) on in the bedroom
- Mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia
- Poor sleep hygiene in general
Here are a few things you can do to make it easier to fall asleep each night:
- Work out on a regular basis
- Foster a calming bedtime routine
- Avoid consuming food and beverages before bed (especially those with caffeine)
- Regularly attend counseling sessions
- Consume medications as prescribed by your doctor (if applicable)
How Much Stage 2 Sleep to Get
Stage two is the first full NREM phase of sleep and can last up to 25 minutes. By this time, your mind is working to suspend your bodily senses. If you could still see, hear, and smell everything when you’re sleeping, your mind wouldn’t be able to focus on maintenance, growth, and recovery.
During stage two your mind produces brain waves called sleep spindles, which researchers believe foster efficient memory production. This stage is also preparing your body to enter deep sleep, which is when most of your body’s repair work is conducted.
How Much Stage 3 Sleep to Get
You need about 20 to 40 minutes of stage three sleep early in the night, and progressively less as the night goes on. This is the deep sleep stage, which you need more of when you’re younger and less of as you age.
Deep sleep is when the body releases growth hormone and also repairs bone, tissue, and muscle. The first deep sleep stage is the longest and they become shorter as your nightly sleep cycles progress.
How Much Stage 4 Sleep to Get
It’s good to get about 10 minutes of REM sleep during your first nightly sleep cycle. The first stage is the shortest and the longer you’re asleep, the longer your REM stages become.
REM sleep is one of the most frequently discussed–not because it’s the most important, but because it’s one of the most interesting. While dreams can occur throughout the sleep cycle, most people report their highest frequency and memorability of dreams that occurred during REM sleep.
Best Amount of Hours to Sleep
How much sleep should you get based on your stage of life, or that of a family member’s? Are there differences between young adults and older adults? Check out this list of recommended sleep lengths for various ages:
Newborn to three months old:
- Total recommended amount of sleep per night: 12 to 18 hours
- Total amount of deep sleep needed per night: 2.4 to 3.6 hours
Three months to one year old:
- Total recommended amount of sleep per night: 14 to 15 hours
- Total amount of deep sleep needed per night: 2.8 to 3.0 hours
One to three years old:
- Total recommended amount of sleep per night: 12 to 14 hours
- Total amount of deep sleep needed per night: 2.4 to 2.8 hours
Three to five years old:
- Total recommended amount of sleep per night: 11 to 13 hours
- Total amount of deep sleep needed per night: 2.2 to 2.6 hours
Five to 12 years old:
- Total recommended amount of sleep per night: 10 to 11
- Total amount of deep sleep needed per night: Two to 2.2 hours
12 to 18 years old:
- Total recommended amount of sleep per night: 8.5 to 10 hours
- Total amount of deep sleep needed per night: 1.7 to two hours
18 to 45 years old:
- Total recommended amount of sleep per night: Seven to 9.5 hours
- Total amount of deep sleep needed per night: One to two hours
45 to 65 years old:
- Total recommended amount of sleep per night: Seven to nine hours
- Total amount of deep sleep needed per night: One to two hours
65 to 90 years old:
- Total recommended amount of sleep per night: Seven to nine hours
- Total amount of deep sleep needed per night: One to two hours
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