He or she might start by checking your weight and height, as well as your blood pressure and maybe your temperature. 1  Blood pressure: This shows how hard your heart is pumping blood throughout your body. A cuff that gets tighter and tighter on your arm is used to measure this.
And people who sleep 8 hr. or more, or less than 6.5 hr., they don't live quite as long. There is just as much risk associated with sleeping too long as with sleeping too short. The big surprise is that long sleep seems to start at 8 hr. Sleeping 8.5 hr. might really be a little worse than sleeping 5 hr.
How Much Sleep Do You Need? Your need for sleep and your sleep patterns change as you age, but this varies significantly across individuals of the same age. There is no magic ânumber of sleep hoursâ that works for everybody of the same age. Babies initially sleep as much as 16 to 18 hours per day, which may boost growth and development (especially of the brain). School-age children and teens on average need about 9.5 hours of sleep per night. Most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep a night, but after age 60, nighttime sleep tends to be shorter, lighter, and interrupted by multiple awakenings. Elderly people are also more likely to take medications that interfere with sleep.