ideal sleep time and duration. what time you sleep and wake up could affect Your mental health

A recent study was conducted on 700,000 people and they were asked in the survey if they were a morning person or a night owl. Starting with the good news, morning person or night owl has no impact on the risk of diabetes or obesity. However, the bad news for night owls is that they may be more prone to depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders like schizophrenia.

This result can be attributed to the exposure of light that early risers get, the more social interaction they are able to provide their mind with since they are awake with the rest of the world and also some genetic effects that provide protection from such mental disorders. The question that arises after this study is when and how much should you sleep to reduce your risk of mental disorders and also other health problems like heart attacks and strokes that can occur due to improper sleep.

Ideal sleep time – from when to when?
According to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the body's cardiac rhythm determines when you should do which activity. Cardiac rhythms are affected by the environment – darkness, light, weather, etc.

During the day, our body produces more cortisol – the hormone released in response to stress. This makes us ready for the day, gives us the energy to function properly throughout the day. Hormones like melatonin, which induce sleep are also not produced or controlled during the day, while the brain releases more of them when it is dark. Therefore, it is important to sleep and wake up according to our body's response to the environment. During the day, our body temperature is also higher, which is again a part of keeping us up and energetic.

As we get older, the melatonin in our bodies decreases and we sleep less and also wake up earlier in the morning. According to a study, the ideal time to wake up in your twenties is 9:30 a.m. and it keeps decreasing with age – 8 by the time you are 30, 7:30 when you are 50 and so on.

Ideal sleep duration – For how long?
The duration for which you sleeps affects your health in ways you do not even realise. Not only mental health, but physical health is also considerably affected by the duration you sleep. If it is too less, it can affect your everyday activities like performance at work, make you cranky and irritable, among other effects. The duration for which you should sleep varies through ages – children need to sleep more than adults. Gender may also affect the duration for which one should sleep. According to an article published in the Daily Mail, it was reported that women need twenty minutes of more sleep than men every day because they need to multi-task during the day and use more of their brain. Here is the ideal sleep duration according to age -

Newborns: 14 to 17 hours
Infants (4-11 months): 12 to 15 hours
1-5 years: 10 to 13 hours
School-age children: 9 to11 hours
Teenagers: 9 to 11 hours
Adults: 7 to 9 hours
Older adults (65+ years): 7 to 8 hours