Sleep
Getting enough sleep is an important part of a healthy lifestyle! Sleep is essential to growth and development for children and youth, and vital to staying healthy for individuals of all ages. The amount of sleep needed in a 24-hour period decreases with age.
Recommended Hours Sleep by Age Group
- Infants (0-3 months): 14 to 17 hours, including naps
- Infants (4-11 months): 12 to 16 hours, including naps
- Toddlers (1 to 2 years): 11 to 14 hours, including naps
- Preschoolers (3 to 4 years): 10 to 13 hours, including naps
- Children (5 to 13 years): 9 to 11 hours
- Teenagers (14 to 17 years): 8 to 10 hours
- Adults (18 to 64 years): 7 to 9 hours
- Seniors (65 + years): 7 to 8 hours
Getting the right amount of sleep can be challenging. The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology recommends the following techniques for good sleep hygiene:
- Set a bedtime and a waking time. Try to go to bed at the same time each night and rise at the same time each morning.
- Sleep in a quiet, dark and relaxing environment, which is not too hot or too cold.
- Make your bed comfortable and use it only for sleeping (not for other activities, such as reading, watching TV or listening to music). For information on infant and children’s beds, see Safe Sleep.
- Remove all TVs, computers and other “gadgets” from the bedroom.
- Avoid large meals before bedtime.
A typical person spends 30-35 per cent of their life sleeping. Proper sleep is good for your health and may help prevent conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Everyone has experienced the fatigue, bad mood, or lack of focus that so often follow a night of poor sleep. In fact, the amount of sleep we get affects our ability to function in our day-to-day lives.
