Health Topic

Healthy Sleep

Sleep is a natural process that helps your body restore energy, supports learning and memory, and keeps you healthy. You can take steps to improve your sleep habits.

Reviewed Reviewed by a registered pharmacistGeneral information

Also called: Sleep Hygiene

Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About Healthy Sleep

While you are sleeping your brain and body functions are still active. Sleep is a natural process that helps your body restore energy, supports learning and memory, and keeps you healthy.

During sleep, your brain cycles through different stages of non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Non-REM sleep has three stages that range from light to deep sleep, while REM sleep is when most dreaming occurs. During each stage, your brain waves, breathing, heart rate, and body temperature change throughout the night. Certain phases of sleep help you:

  • Feel rested and energetic the next day.
  • Learn new information, get insight, and form memories.
  • Give your heart and blood vessels a rest.
  • Release growth hormone, which helps children grow and assists in muscle repair and tissue healing for everyone.
  • Release sex hormones, which contribute to puberty and fertility.
  • Maintain a healthy balance of hormones that control hunger and fullness.
  • Strengthen your immune system by producing cytokines (hormones that help the body fight infection).

You need all the stages to get a healthy sleep.

The amount of sleep you need depends on your age, lifestyle, health, and sleep patterns. The general recommendations for sleep are:

  • Babies (4-12 months): 12-16 hours a day (including naps)
  • Children (1-2 years): 11-14 hours a day (including naps)
  • Children (3-5 years): 10-13 hours a day (including naps)
  • Children (6-12 years): 9-12 hours a day
  • Teens (13-18 years): 8-10 hours a day
  • Adults (18 years and older): 7-9 hours a day

During puberty, teenagers' biological clocks shift. They tend to fall asleep later and wake up later, which can conflict with the early school start times. This is one reason many teenagers don't get enough sleep.

Some people think adults need less sleep as they age, but there is no evidence to support this. However, older adults often get less sleep or spend less time in the deep, restful stages of sleep. They also wake up more easily.

It's not just the number of hours of sleep you get that matters. The quality of the sleep you get is also important. People whose sleep is frequently interrupted might not get enough of certain stages of sleep. If you are wondering whether you are getting enough sleep, including quality sleep, ask yourself:

  • Do I have trouble getting up in the morning?
  • Do I have trouble focusing during the day?
  • Do I doze off during the day?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may need to improve your sleep habits.

Sleep is important for overall health. When you don't get enough sleep (sleep deprivation), it does more than just make you feel tired. It can impair your ability to think clearly, react quickly, and form memories. This increases your risk of making mistakes, taking risks, or getting into accidents.

Sleep deprivation can also affect your mood, leading to:

  • Irritability
  • Problems with relationships, especially for children and teenagers
  • Depression
  • Anxiety

It can also affect your physical health. Not getting enough sleep, or getting poor-quality sleep, increases your risk of:

  • High blood pressure
  • Heart disease
  • Stroke
  • Kidney disease
  • Obesity
  • Type 2 diabetes

Not getting enough sleep can also lower your levels of hormones that help children grow and help the body build muscle, repair tissue, and fight infections.

Sleep deprivation also magnifies the effect of alcohol. A tired person who drinks too much alcohol will be more impaired than a well-rested person who drinks the same amount.

You can take steps to improve your sleep habits. First, make sure that you allow yourself enough time for sleep. Getting enough sleep each night may help you feel happier and more productive during the day.

To improve your sleep habits, it also may help to:

  • Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
  • Avoid caffeine, especially in the afternoon and evening.
  • Avoid nicotine.
  • Exercise regularly, but not too close to bedtime.
  • Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed.
  • Avoid large meals and drinks late at night.
  • Don't take a nap after 3 p.m.
  • Relax before bed by taking a bath, reading or listening to calm music.
  • Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet.
  • Get rid of distractions such as TVs, computers, and phones.
  • Get enough sunlight exposure during the day.
  • If you can't fall asleep for 20 minutes, get up and do something relaxing.
  • See a health care provider if you have continued trouble sleeping. You may have a sleep disorder, such as insomnia or sleep apnea. In some cases, your provider may suggest trying a sleep study or other treatments.

If you are a shift worker, getting good sleep can be more challenging. You may also want to:

  • Take naps and extend your total sleep time
  • Keep the lights bright at work
  • Limit shift changes to help your body adjust
  • Limit caffeine to the first part of your shift
  • Remove sound and light distractions in your bedroom during daytime sleep (for example, use light-blocking curtains or earplugs)

It sits within Brain and Nerves.

The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on Healthy Sleep

499 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Research already completed

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

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Diagnosis and Tests

Related Issues

Statistics and Research

Clinical Trials

Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Sleep Hygiene. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Healthy Sleep, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.