How much deep sleep should you get each night?

If you’re asking that question I know two things about you…

1. You don’t track your sleep with an Oura Ring
2. You most likely feel terrible because you have insomnia

Am I right?

To start this article off I’m going to answer this question straight away….

The amount of deep sleep you should get each night is roughly 1.5 to 2 hours (or 20%).

But first….

What is Deep Sleep?

Deep sleep is known as deep delta wave sleep. This is where the brain waves if you were to measure them are slow, long and rhythmic in nature. It’s the deepest form of the nREM phase of sleep.

In adults normally around 20% of your sleep time should be in this deep delta wave sleep. This usually accounts for around 1.5 to 2 hours of sleep each night.  Obviously the more you can get, the better your health will be.

Deep sleep is the type of sleep that if you don’t get it, you really feel it the next day.

Generally as we age, we get less and less deep sleep. So this is something we must be aware of and focus on getting more throughout our lives.

Symptoms of Not Enough Deep Sleep

The number one symptom of not getting enough deep sleep is feeling tired, worn out and exhausted all day. You might be in a meeting at work and you feel drowsy and ready to take a nap. Or you could feel this way after lunch when your blood sugar spikes and then renormalizes.

Another symptom of not getting enough deep sleep is the inability to concentrate. How many kids and adults do you know these days that have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD?

The inability to concentrate and focus is the direct result of getting very little deep sleep the night before.

Something else that doesn’t happen when you lack deep sleep is repairing tissues or growing muscles. If you work out a lot for example but don’t get enough deep sleep, then most likely you’re doing to be what’s called a “Hard gainer”. That is somebody who eats enough protein, works out a lot but can’t gain muscle.

If you’re older and don’t get enough deep sleep this could look like cachexia that is muscle wasting.

But on top of that you have lots of organs and glands in your body that need to be rebuilt and repaired. This doesn’t happen unless you get at least 2 hours of deep sleep per night.

You also could be more susceptible to learning disabilities, cognitive decline (Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases​), issues remembering basic information, hormone imbalances and what’s pretty shocking is cardiovascular disease (heart attacks), obesity and type 2 diabetes.

If you went to the doctor suspecting you have heart trouble, obesity or diabetes, did the doctor ever ask you how much deep sleep you get? This can all be tracked with an Oura Ring or a Whoop band so you can know exactly how much deep sleep you get each night.

Shame on doctors for not even bringing this up to their patients.

Why Deep Sleep is Important?

We know that there’s a correlation between preventing diseases like Alzheimer’s for example and getting enough deep sleep. Alzheimer’s disease isn’t just the only disease that increases with a lack of deep sleep. Cancer, heart disease (the top two killers), diabetes and neurological disease all decrease when deep sleep increases.

The other factor is how long you live. Your longevity is tied to having enough deep sleep.

So not only do you want to have a good memory, have balanced hormones and a general drive and optimism in life (Sleep heals all of these health challenges) but you also should want to prevent getting a chronic degenerative disease (like cancer, heart disease etc) while at the same time extending you life.

So getting enough deep sleep helps in the long term (longevity and disease prevention) but it also helps in the short term too where you feel better and more alive every day.

Getting enough deep sleep should be your number one priority each and every day.

How To Get More Deep Sleep

Establish a consistent sleep schedule

This is mission critical. Your body is tied to a 24 hour light dark cycle. Just like the rhythmic nature of seasons, your body LOVES schedules. Go to bed the same time each day at least within 30 minutes (before or after) you went to sleep the night before.

Go to bed even if you’re not sleepy. Set the schedule. Your adrenal glands will thank you.

Create a relaxing bedtime routine

This is really important as well. My daily bedtime routine actually starts when I wake up in the morning. But in order for me to keep this short, my night time routine starts when the sun sets. That’s when I switch from wearing my yellow blue blocking glasses to my orange ones. Then two hours before bed, I put on my red blue blocking glasses and I take my 50mg of melatonin at 8:30 every night.

Then I take a magnesium filled bath for relaxation and stretch afterward and read 10 minutes of a book, then I hope into bed. These days I fall asleep in less than 10 minutes.

Twenty years ago I would toss and turn for hours. It really sucked.

The point is to slowly and methodically ease your way into bed. Think of it like going swimming in a lake where it gradually gets deeper and deeper. Each thing you do, is like taking one more step to the deep end.

Optimize your sleep environment

Your bedroom is your sleep sanctuary. I wrote an entire article on this called The Ultimate Guide To Building Your Sleep Sanctuary Part 2 that I’d suggest you read. Make sure you have circadian lights installed and have a bedroom that feels calm and serene. This goes from having an ideal bedroom temperature to having an organic mattress.

Everything in your bedroom should make it as easy as possible for you to fall into a deep sleep. If there’s something that’s in your bedroom that prevents this (like a blue lit TV or iPhone), get rid of it.

Avoid stimulants before bed

This goes for food too. Avoid eating after sunset. There are lots of studies that you can read in The Daylight Diet and Yes, No, Maybe Chronobiotic Nutrition. Avoid caffeine, food of any kind, wine and other alcoholic drinks as well as coffee, chocolate, and desserts like ice cream.

I stop eating at around 6 or 7 pm and go to bed around 10pm. If you do this for thirty days you’ll notice better sleep, better health, weight loss and more energy.

Exercise regularly

But don’t do it in a blue lit gym! I’d rather see you take a long walk outside with no sunglasses on or shoes on during the middle of the day than workout in a gym that has high nnEMF levels and lots of blue light.

Exercise outdoors for best results for your sleep, disease prevention and longevity.

Remember, the sun heals.

Manage stress levels

Stress of any kind….financial, emotional, spiritual, relational, are killers. If you are in a stressful relationship and you are able, ditch it. If you’re in a high stress job that’s killing your sleep, get a new one. Do what you can to eliminate all stressors in you life.

Then learn some stress management techniques like mediation or Qigong to better handle the stressors remaining. If you can read these two books Loving What Is and The Four Agreements you’ll go a long way.

Limit alcohol consumption

Alcohol does nothing but disrupt the amount of deep sleep you have. It’s doing nothing for you other than setting the stage for insomnia and disease later in life. You’re better than that. It’s not worth it. Give it up and you’ll notice better sleep starting the first night.

If you do happen to drink some wine or spirits after sun set at least do your liver a favor and take some Zbiotics so you don’t have a hangover the next morning!

Try sleep-enhancing techniques

These could be mediation or and evening Qigong session right before bed. They could also be breathing techniques for sleep that help you to fall asleep once you get into bed. Either way, try some sleep techniques to help you fall asleep so you can get more deep sleep.

How Much Deep Sleep Should I Be Getting?

This is the age old question how much deep sleep should I be getting? We we kind of discussed it before. For adults you should be getting anywhere from 1.5 to 2 hours (or roughly 20%) of deep sleep per night.

You might be wondering how can I measure my deep sleep? How can I know?

Easy.

Get an Oura Ring or Whoop Band and it will tell you. 🙂

Conclusion

Obviously how much deep sleep each adult should get is going to vary a little bit. But the idea is to track it and start focusing on your sleep from the moment you wake up in the morning. The best way to do that is by watching the sunrise, which helps set your circadian rhythm for the day but also creates melatonin that will be released when the sun sets and it gets dark.

Questions:

1. How much deep sleep do you get per night?
2. Do you track your sleep?
3. If not, why not?
4. If you do track your sleep, do you feel better when you get more deep sleep?

Comment below!