(Jennifer Leavitt/ Healthline) — Depending on their age, a person needs 7–17 hours sleep in every 24 hours. But, just sleeping is not enough. Deep sleep is essential for health and wellbeing. Most adults need around 1.5–2 hours of deep sleep per night.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advise adults aged 18–60 years to aim for at least 7 hours of sleep per night. Around 25% of this should be deep sleep.
Sleep happens in stages, and we spend different lengths of time in light and deep sleep. All the stage are important, but they serve different purposes.
Here, learn about the stages of sleep, what deep sleep is, and how much you need.
In healthy adults, about 70% of sleep is deep sleep and around 25% of your sleeping time is your deepest sleep. So, if you sleep for 7–8 hours, the time spent in your deepest sleep should be around 105–120 minutes or one and three quarters to 2 hours. (…)