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How many hours of sleep do I need?

Slept enough? That depends entirely on you!
Photo: iStockphoto

Good morning Germany!

A Klingelstreich special kind, between seven and nine in German bedrooms. The question: How did you sleep? And above all: long enough? How many hours sleep the human really needs, we reveal here.

"The sleep is for the whole person, what the raising for the clock, " already knew the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. How right the man is, we notice, when the night was far too short .

We overslept about a third of our lives. Vertane time? Not at all: while we sleep, we process the impressions of the day, recharge our batteries. Blood pressure, metabolism and body temperature are shut down, the immune system fights pathogens. Growth hormones ensure that the muscles regain their strength, enzymes begin with the repair of body cells. At the same time it leads to an increased blood circulation of the skin, it is intensively supplied with nutrients and regenerates. By the way, the brain also arranges its archives while sleeping: what has been learned is consolidated by linking it to the long-term memory via nerve impulses.

The body goes through four to five cycles of about 90 minutes each night. At the end is the approximately 20-minute REM phase. REM stands for "Rapid Eye Movement" because the eyes move very fast during this section. The brain is now almost as active as it is awake, so we can best remember dreams from the REM phase. But how many hours of sleep does a person really need? The body needs an average of seven to eight hours for the all-round all-round renewal, but the average duration of sleep can vary greatly in individual cases: short sleepers are enough for four to five hours to feel rested. Other people in turn need more than ten hours of sleep. Anyone who belongs to the short, medium or long-sleepers is hereditary, and that can hardly be influenced by training. Basically, quality is more important than quantity. Those who are fit after five hours of sleep should not have a hard time by staying in bed for another three hours longer. However, those who regularly sleep too little (less than four hours) or sleep too much (over 14 hours) confuse the metabolism and endocrine system so that diseases such as high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia or depression can be the result in the long term. By the way, the recreational value of sleep is independent of the time of going to bed. It is more important to keep the usual sleep rhythm as much as possible during sleep or sleep problems.

The best tips for getting in and staying asleep can be found here >>

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