Of course, it’s a no-brainer that getting enough Zzz’s means feeling refreshed when you open your eyes in the morning and rarely feel snoozy during the day. Both lack of the beauty sleep and oversleeping are equally harmful for your heart, brain, immune system, as well as they are serious risk factors for other health issues.

But how much sleep do we really need?

Sleeping from 7 to 9 hours is generally considered optimal for recharging your batteries. But, truth be told, there isn’t a perfect number of hours every single person should stick to.

Sleep duration varies from age to age. For example, newborns need from 14 to 17 hours of sleep, and the number of hours goes down from there. Teenagers should sleep from 8 to 10 hours, adults - from 7 to 9 hours, while older adults require from 7 to 8 hours.

Your sleep is also affected by your lifestyle and health. If you’re a very active person you’d need more hours of rest than a person who doesn’t move around much. And you need more sleep than usual when you get over an illness or a stressful situation.

Having a healthy sleep habit is just as important as figuring out the number of hours your body needs for a quality rest. So, if you’ve ever been wondering how to get rid of a bad and inconsistent bedtime schedule and fix your sleep cycle once and for all, there is an easy way to test your natural sleep needs.

No special equipment for that is required:

1. Restore your proper biorhythms by going to bed at around 10 PM on a weekend and wake up without an alarm clock the next day. If you feel most refreshed when you awake, it means you’ve slept just enough. This is how you can figure out your magic number of hours and stick to it.


2. Get your body into a routine: go to bed and wake up at around the same time each night and morning. Hold onto this routine even on weekends and you will see how it’s gradually becoming your habit.

Building a regular sleep pattern helps fix your body clock and sleep much better at night. Taking care of your sleep hygiene and creating a soothing sleep environment will also help you make the most out of your bedtime.