Life's Essential 8™ - How to Get Healthy Sleep Fact Sheet

Getting a good night’s sleep every night is vital to cardiovascular health. Adults should aim for an average of 7-9 hours, and babies and kids need more depending on their age. Too little or too much sleep is associated with heart disease, studies show.

Learn How Sleep Affects Your Health

Most adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. Babies and kids need even more.

Poor sleep may put you at higher risk for:

Cardiovascular disease
Cognitive decline and dementia
Depression
High blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol
Obesity

Learn the Benefits of Sleep

Healing and repair of cells, tissues and blood vessels
Stronger immune system
Improved mood and energy
Better brain function including alertness decision-making, focus, learning, memory, reasoning and problem-solving
Less risk of chronic disease

Tips For Success

Clean up your sleep hygiene.

Move it. Charge your device as far away from your bed as possible. Added bonus? The distance may help you feel less overwhelmed in general.
Dim it. Dim your screen or use a red filter app at night. The bright blue light of most devices can mess with your circadian rhythm and melatonin production.
Set it. Alarms aren’t just for waking up – set a bedtime alarm to remind you that it’s time to wrap it up for the night.
Lock it. if you’ve got a scrolling habit you need to kick, try an app-blocking app that makes it impossible to get lost in after-hours emails, social media or gaming.
Block it. Tell notifications to buzz off if they’re waking you up at night. Put your phone on “do not disturb” mode to block it all out when you’re trying to sleep.