Can we go further, putting people to sleep for decades and maybe even the centuries it would take to travel between the stars? Right now, the answer is no. We don't have any technology at our disposal that could do this. We know that microbial life can be frozen for hundreds of years.
The average person spends about 26 years sleeping in their life which equates to 9,490 days or 227,760 hours. That's one third of our entire lives spent asleep in bed! Surprisingly, we also spend 7 years trying to get to sleep — a total of 33 years or 12,045 days!
The only buildings that would probably still stand even after 1 thousand years are those made of stone. The first day after people went to sleep, most power plants would shut down, cutting off electricity worldwide. Only Times Square and Las Vegas would still have light for a few more days.
Sleep and Aging
Older adults need about the same amount of sleep as all adults—7 to 9 hours each night. But, older people tend to go to sleep earlier and get up earlier than they did when they were younger. There are many reasons why older people may not get enough sleep at night.
Some sleep experts suggest that seniors actually need less sleep than other age groups. Most people need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep whereas many seniors can get away with 7.5 hours. Other experts believe that seniors need just as much sleep as the rest of the population.
adults (26–64 years): 7–9 hours. older adults (65 years and above): 7–8 hours.
Typically, they went to sleep three hours and 20 minutes after sunset and woke before sunrise. And they slept through the night. The result of these sleep patterns: Nearly no one suffered from insomnia. In none of their languages is there even a word for insomnia.
Elon Musk says he's upped his sleep to 6 hours per night—and that his old routine hurt his brain. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, speaks with CNBC on May 16th, 2023. Elon Musk says his days of trying to sleep less and work more are over — at least, relatively speaking.
Electricity came, and humans had to adjust their sleep patterns accordingly. But before that time, some parts of the world slept in two phases within a 24-hour span. It was common practice in some populations to have “two sleep periods”; you could have the first snooze during the day and the second at night.
According to discoveries made in the 1990s by a Virginia Tech historian, Robert Ekirch, before the 20th century, our ancestors used to dabble in a kind of sleep called "biphasic sleep." This meant that instead of sleeping for one long, eight-hour period, they instead slept for two four-hour periods with a few hours of ...
Arguably from time immemorial to the nineteenth century, the dominant pattern of sleep in Western societies was biphasic, whereby most preindustrial households retired between 9 and 10pm, slept for 3 to 3 ½ hours during their “first sleep,” awakened after midnight for an hour or so, during which individuals did ...
Between the ages of 1 and 2, most kids need about 11–14 hours of sleep a day, including one or two daytime naps. At around 18 months, or sometimes sooner, most toddlers condense their two naps into one afternoon nap. A toddler who fights the morning nap is probably ready for just an afternoon nap.
In December 1963/January 1964, 17-year-old Gardner stayed awake for 11 days and 24 minutes (264.4 hours), breaking the previous record of 260 hours held by Tom Rounds. Gardner's record attempt was attended by Stanford sleep researcher Dr.
“Women are also multi-taskers, and they do a lot at once. Because they use more of their actual brain, they may need a little bit more sleep than men. It is still debatable, but some experts say that women need twenty more minutes on average than men usually need.”
The thing the job is not known for, however, is a good night's sleep. With various board meetings and no shortage of pressure, rest can be hard to find. CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk get under six hours of sleep each night.
Albert Einstein, a household name that has inspired many a crazy hair day and who is most famous for his theory of General Relativity, was a huge fan of catching some Z's. He would sleep an average of 10 hours a night as well as taking daytime naps.
7AM: Wake-up call
After a restful 7 hours, Bill awakes rearing to go.
Research suggests that sleeping naked may potentially positively impact reproductive health, connection with a partner, and self-esteem. Currently, there isn't much scientific research studying the effects of sleeping nude, or reliable data on what percentage of people in the U.S. sleep naked.
For millennia, people slept in two shifts – once in the evening, and once in the morning. But why? And how did the habit disappear? It was around 23:00 on 13 April 1699, in a small village in the north of England.
Homo sapiens are the only species that deliberately deprives itself of sleep; all other mammals sleep at multiple points during the day when their bodies urge them to. Infants nap vigorously, which confirms that a bit of sleep during the day is perfectly natural - and necessary - for humans.
According to their internal body clock, most older adults need to go to sleep around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. and wake up at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. Many people fight their natural inclination to sleep and choose to go to bed several hours later instead.
“There is no such thing as a “fixed or ideal time” to go to bed which will suit all individuals. It is generally advisable to fall asleep between 10 pm to midnight as for most people this is when the circadian rhythm is at a point that favours falling asleep.”
How much sleep someone needs depends on their age. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has recommended that children aged 6–12 years should regularly sleep 9–12 hours per 24 hours and teenagers aged 13–18 years should sleep 8–10 hours per 24 hours.