Most of us spend up to a third of each day in bed – that’s about 29,200 hours in bed every ten years.

New research has shown that people who try to cut down on sleep are more prone to infection and irritability. In a recent study of 9,000 British adults, it was found that those who slept between six-and-a-half and eight-and-a-half hours enjoyed much better overall health than those who slept for less.

Lack of sleep can sabotage diets and knock our immune system for six: exhausted people are far more likely to pick up bugs and infections because of the way lack of sleep upsets the normal cycle of chemical and hormone release. When a representative sample of more than 300 adults aged 30 to 60 years were asked about the effect a bad night’s sleep had on them, 79 per cent of people saw a direct link between the way they had slept and how they felt the next day. A staggering 52 per cent said that they regularly experienced tiredness/lethargy, irritability, poor concentration, depression or headaches which they attributed to poor quality sleep.

Only 10 per Cent of people stated that they always had a good night’s sleep – these were the people who regularly got more than the average amount of sleep.

How much sleep do we really need? While this will vary greatly from person to person, the average amount of sleep needed each day, according to the Ushborne Book of Body Facts, is 16 to 20 hours for a new-born baby; 13 hours for a two-year-old; 10 to 11 hours for a five-year-old; 9 to 10 hours for a ten-year-old; 7 to 8 hours for an adult; and a mere 5 hours for an eighty-year-old. On the average, people sleep for just 6.7 hours before a working day and 7.1 hours before a day off.

*50\124\2*