Health
Best and worst bedtimes for various generations
How much sleep is enough sleep?
It depends on multiple factors. One of the biggest is age.
In general, as you age, less sleep is required. While that may be true, the amount of sleep people need is an individualized experience, and not everyone requires the same amount of rest to properly function throughout the day.
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How much sleep a person needs may also not be consistent. For example, if you have a poor night’s sleep one night, you may require more hours of rest the next.
Pregnancy can also affect sleep. Pregnancy can affect quality sleep through physical discomfort, hormone shifts and anxiety, according to the Sleep Foundation.
While there are a number of factors that play into a good night’s sleep, here are some general guidelines for how much sleep different generations should get and tips for sleeping soundly.
- Newborns
- Toddlers
- Children
- Teenagers
- Adults
1. Newborns
Newborns require a lot of sleep. A newborn’s sleep schedule requires flexibility from parents because their hours of slumber are often far from consistent.
In general, newborns up to the age of 3 months need between 14 and 17 hours of sleep a day, according to the National Sleep Foundation. This includes naps throughout the day.
Infants from 4 to 11 months old still need between 12 and 15 hours every day.
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Newborns only sleep for an hour or two at a time, so establishing a schedule can be tricky.
Even though it will take time to establish a steady routine with your baby, it’s never too soon to start incorporating healthy habits.
For example, establishing a calming routine, putting babies to bed once they begin to get drowsy and giving them time to settle down all contribute to good sleep, according to Mayo Clinic.
Also, remember it’s never too early to begin reading to your baby — which can also become a bedtime routine staple.
2. Toddlers
Toddlers need between 11 and 14 hours of sleep every night, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
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At this age, you can really start to establish a bedtime routine with your child through actions like picking out pajamas, brushing teeth and reading a book together.
The time that toddlers go to bed varies for families, but anywhere from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. is a good time to begin thinking about getting to bed, according to Parents.com.
3. Children
Children between 3 and 5 years old should get 10 to 13 hours of sleep per night, according to the National Sleep Foundation — while kids 6 to 13 years old should get nine to 11 hours of sleep every night.
Starting school will help children establish a daily routine.
When kids start school, it’s important to ensure they get to bed at an hour that allows them to get proper sleep before a busy day of learning.
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For school-age children, a bedtime between 7:15 p.m. and 9 p.m. is generally a good idea, per Parents.com.
4. Teenagers
Teenagers don’t need as much sleep as children do.
For teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17, eight to 10 hours of sleep is ideal, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
Many teenagers are busy with extracurricular activities during the school year, which can affect their sleep.
They could be eating dinner later than normal or may spend time before bed scrolling through their phones, preventing them from getting good sleep.
Trying to limit screen time and going to bed around the same time on a nightly basis can help teenagers get optimal sleep.
5. Adults
Adults need the least sleep of any age group.
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Adults between ages 18 and 64 should get between seven and nine hours of sleep each night, according to the National Sleep Foundation’s guidance, while those over 65 should get between seven and eight hours of sleep.
If you’re having trouble falling asleep, try to adjust your bedtime routine to include relaxing activities, like listening to calming music or reading a book.
Also, “white noise” could help you to fall asleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
You can get “white noise” through a fan or by using a sound machine or a noise app on your phone.
A cool room is another contributor to quality sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation, with an ideal temperature of between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit.
You can also limit caffeine intake and meals too close to bedtime to prepare your body for a restful sleep.
Health
Harvard medical student ate 720 eggs in a month, then shared the 'fascinating' results
A Harvard medical student recently completed an “egg-citing” experiment.
Nick Norwitz, 25, decided to eat 720 eggs in one month to see what the effect would be on his cholesterol.
At the end of the month, the Boston man found that his cholesterol levels had dipped by 20%.
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Norwitz — a self-described “academician” with a PhD in metabolic health, who is currently finishing his medical degree at Harvard — said he has always had a passion for sharing his “joy and interest” in science.
“My colleagues and I come up with creative ways to try to translate our awe and love for physiology and biology into something that is interesting and accessible to the public,” he told Fox News Digital.
“The goal is to provoke conversation and bring people to the table so we can talk about human metabolism, which I find utterly fascinating.”
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During his egg-eating month, Norwitz consumed 24 eggs per day.
He ate them in “all the ways,” he said — scrambled, fried, omelets, deviled.
“Eggs are a pretty versatile food, so making them in different ways made for a pretty pleasant experiment — it wasn’t that difficult.”
For the first two weeks, it was against the backdrop of an otherwise very low-carbohydrate diet, he said, and then he added carbs for the second two weeks.
“The goal is to provoke conversation about human metabolism.”
“The purpose of this whole experiment was a metabolic demonstration to discuss the ‘levers’ that can affect cholesterol in different individuals.”
“I expected my cholesterol levels not to change by just adding the eggs — and that is indeed what happened.”
It was when he added the carbs that his cholesterol levels dropped, due to a metabolic shift after having adapted to the low-carb diet — a phenomenon that he explains in more detail in the video at the top of the article.
One key thing Norwitz has learned — from this experiment and others he’s done — is that there’s not one “best” human diet.
“When evaluating what is a good diet for a person, you need to consider their baseline metabolic health, and also what their goals are,” he told Fox News Digital.
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Some people, for example, might be optimizing for longevity, while others might be focused on cardiovascular health or looking to keep inflammatory bowel disease in remission.
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Norwitz said he has many more experiments planned to spark awareness and knowledge of how foods affect the body’s functions and overall health.
“I am passionate about making metabolic health mainstream,” he said. “This is only the tip of the iceberg.”
Health
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Health
Federal judge orders EPA further regulate fluoride in drinking water due to concerns over lowered IQ in kids
It has been added to municipal water for decades, but a federal judge in California has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further regulate fluoride because high levels could pose “an unreasonable risk” to the intellectual development of children.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled Tuesday that the scientific evidence of fluoride’s health risks when ingested at current prescribed levels requires stricter regulation under the 2016 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The act provides a legal pathway for citizens to petition the EPA to consider whether an industrial chemical presents health risks.
Chen, in his 80-page ruling, wrote there is “little dispute” over whether fluoride is hazardous and ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.
“Indeed, EPA’s own expert agrees that fluoride is hazardous at some level of exposure,” the judge said. “And ample evidence establishes that a mother’s exposure to fluoride during pregnancy is associated with IQ decrements in her offspring.”
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“Between 1981 and 1984, fluoride’s association with adverse effects including osteosclerosis, enamel fluorosis, and psychological and behavioral problems was contested,” Chen said.
At the same time, he wrote that the court’s finding “does not conclude with certainty that fluoridated water is injurious to public health,” Chen said. “Rather, as required by the Amended TSCA, the Court finds there is an unreasonable risk of such injury, a risk sufficient to require the EPA to engage with a regulatory response.
“This order does not dictate precisely what that response must be. Amended TSCA leaves that decision in the first instance to the EPA. One thing the EPA cannot do, however, in the face of this Court’s finding, is to ignore that risk,” Chen added.
“If the Court finds anew that the chemical at issue presents an unreasonable risk, it then orders the EPA to engage in rulemaking regarding the chemical,” the judge said. “The EPA is afforded in the first instance the authority to respond; regulatory actions can range from requiring a mere warning label to banning the chemical.”
An EPA spokesperson, Jeff Landis, told The Associated Press that the agency was reviewing the decision but offered no further comment.
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