Until the 1950s most people thought of sleep as apassive,dormant part of daily life.we now know that our brains are very active during sleep.moreover,sleep affects our functioning and our physical and mental health in many ways.
The amount of slep each person needs depends on many factors,including age,the stse of healthand occupation.
Infants generally requires about 16hours a day,while teenagers need about 9hours on average.For most adults 7 to 8hours a night a night appears to be the best amount of sleep.,although some people may need asfew as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day.women in first 3 month of pregnancy often needs several more hours of sleep than usualthe amount of sleep a person needs also increases if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days.getting too little sleep creats “sleep debt’which affects judgement,reaction time and other important functions.
People tend to sleep more lightly and for short time spans as they get older,although they generally need about th same amount of sleep as they needed in early adulthood.about half of people over 65, have frequent sleeping problems,such as insomnia,and deep sleep stages in many elderly people,often become very short, stop completely.this change may be a normal part of aging,may result from medical problems that are common in elderly people orfrom medication and other treatments for those problems.
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