Deep sleep helps with everything from recovery to memory to strengthening your immune system — not to mention helping us feel rested the next day. But how much deep sleep do we need exactly?
Unfortunately, it’s not a simple answer. We all need a different amount of deep sleep a night. And that amount can change from night to night, too. Sleep experts don’t even have set guidelines for deep sleep as it’s constantly changing and individual.
The good news is you don’t need to worry about it. Your brain can self-optimize and spend the right amount of time in deep sleep each night — all you need to do is get enough healthy sleep overall.
Below, we’ll dive into how much deep sleep you need and how you can get more of it. Plus, we’ll share how the can help you get the right amount of deep sleep for you by getting enough sleep each night.
“There’s no set number when it comes to how much deep sleep you need," says Dr. Chester Wu. "What we do know is that your brain will automatically adjust how much time you spend in deep sleep each night based on your current needs. Focus on getting enough sleep each night, and you’ll get enough deep sleep, too.”
Dr. Chester Wu is double board certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, and provides sleep medicine services, medication management, and psychotherapy to adults at his private sleep medicine and psychiatry practice.
You spend about in deep sleep. That means if you need eight hours of sleep, you’d need 48 minutes to two hours of deep sleep. But, unfortunately, it’s not as clear-cut as that.
There are no agreed-upon guidelines for deep sleep as it changes so much from person to person and from night to night.
Plus, not everyone needs eight hours of sleep. Our sleep needs — the genetically determined amount of sleep we need — are all different. And therefore the amount of deep sleep you need will be different, too.
Our sleep need findings: We looked at sleep need data from 1.95 million RISE users aged 24 and up and found the median sleep need is eight hours. But our users’ sleep needs range from five hours to 11 hours 30 minutes.
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To make things more complicated, you don’t spend the exact same amount of time in deep sleep each night. A found the percentage of time participants spent in deep sleep (as well as light sleep and REM sleep) changed over the course of five nights.
And you may need more sleep overall some nights, like when you’re ill.
We asked one of our sleep reviewers, Dr. Jamie Zeitzer, who’s the co-director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at Stanford University, for his thoughts.
Turn to the RISE app to find out how much sleep you need overall. RISE uses proprietary sleep-science-based models and a year’s worth of your phone use behavior to work out your sleep need down to the minute.
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Children need more sleep than adults, so they may need more deep sleep, too. shows children get significantly more deep sleep than teenagers and adults. And we get as we age.
According to the , here’s how much sleep you likely need based on your age:
Heads-up: Older adults may not need less sleep. Sleep is harder to come by as we age, and this may be reflected in generic sleep need guidelines, which are based on surveys that look at how much sleep people get — not what they actually need.
When we looked at our own sleep need data, the median sleep need for RISE users over 60 was 8 hours 18 minutes. The median sleep need for those aged 24 to 59 was 8 hours 24 minutes — a mere six minutes longer.
We argue you don’t need to know how much deep sleep you need.
Here’s why:
Our top piece of advice: If you want to get more energy, be more productive, boost your mood, or improve your mental and physical health, the best thing you can do is focus on getting enough sleep each night and keeping your sleep debt low.
The good news? Get the right amount of sleep and your brain will do the hard work for you and get the right amount of deep sleep (as well as light and REM sleep). We demystify all things sleep quantity vs sleep quality here.
Each night of sleep is made up of four different : three stages of non-rapid-eye-movement sleep (NREM sleep) and one stage of rapid-eye-movement sleep (REM sleep).
Once you’ve moved through all four sleep stages, you’ll complete one sleep cycle. Each sleep cycle lasts about 70 to 120 minutes and, depending on the number of hours of sleep you need, we get four to six sleep cycles a night.
Here’s how a night of sleep should go:
Heads-up: How your sleep is structured is known as sleep architecture. And sleep architecture is not the same for everyone and it can even change from night to night. Your sleep cycles can change in length and shape throughout the night, and the boundaries between sleep stages can be fuzzy.
Deep sleep is one of the stages of sleep we move through each night.
During deep sleep, also known as slow wave sleep, your brain activity produces patterns of slow brain waves (hence the name) known as delta waves. Your heart rate and breathing slow down, and experts believe deep sleep is when the most recovery takes place.
Deep sleep is the hardest stage to wake someone up from. And if you are woken up from deep sleep, you may feel more groggy compared to waking up in light sleep.
Deep sleep is vital for rest and recovery. In this stage, your immune system is strengthened, your brain detoxified, and your pituitary gland secretes growth hormone, which helps cells in the body regenerate and repair.
Deep sleep is also the sleep stage where your brain works on creating and storing memories and consolidating new information you’ve learned during the day. suggests deep sleep may even play a part in processes like glucose metabolism.
The best way to get more deep sleep is to get enough sleep overall. That’s because we can’t control how our brains move through the different sleep stages.
What we can do, however, is make sure we get enough healthy natural sleep each night with good sleep hygiene (more on that soon). When we get enough sleep, our brains will self-optimize and spend the right amount of hours in deep sleep.
Use RISE to find out how much sleep you need and then aim for this number each night.
Here are our top tips to help you do that, and how these activities affect deep sleep:
These behaviors are part of something called sleep hygiene, which are the daily habits you can do to get a good night’s sleep. To help you get enough sleep (and enough deep sleep) each night, RISE can guide you through 20+ sleep hygiene habits each day.
Here are some key habits to focus on to help you get enough sleep overall:
Want more deep sleep tips? We’ve covered more on how to get more deep sleep here.
, pre-bed , and alcohol can lead to less deep sleep, and those with depression and sleep apnea may get less deep sleep.
Speak to your healthcare provider if you think a mental health issue, medical condition, or sleep disorder is stopping you from getting enough (deep) sleep.
Not getting enough deep sleep can affect immune function, skin health, and even your ability to retain information properly. Not to mention you simply won’t be feeling or performing your best. Plus, a lack of deep sleep has been linked to serious health problems such as , heart disease, stroke, and .
After a night of total sleep deprivation, the next time you go to sleep, you’ll spend less time in stages 1, 2, and REM sleep, and more time in deep sleep, which experts say shows just how vital this phase of sleep is.
After a night of partial sleep deprivation — think six hours or fewer — you’ll spend less time in stages 1, 2, and REM, but deep sleep may be less affected (depending on the time you went to bed) as this mainly happens in the first few cycles of sleep. But that doesn’t mean this kind of sleep deprivation is okay.
You’ll be throwing off the balance between the sleep stages, your daytime performance will keep getting worse and worse until you get enough sleep, and sleep studies show you’ll be increasing your risk of developing everything from to cancer.
You spend 20% to 25% of your time asleep in REM. So, if you need eight hours of sleep, you’d need 1 hour 36 minutes to two hours of REM sleep a night.
This number will be different for each of us, though, as we all need a different amount of sleep each night. And there are no definitive guidelines as the amount of REM we need varies so much from person to person and from night to night.
We’ve covered how to get more REM sleep here.
You spend 45% to 55% of your time asleep in light sleep. So, if you need eight hours of sleep, you’d need 3 hours 36 minutes to 4 hours 24 minutes of light sleep.
This number will be different for each of us, however, as we all need a different amount of sleep each night. There are no agreed-upon guidelines as the amount of light sleep we need varies so much from person to person and from night to night.
Deep sleep should be about 10% to 25% of your overall sleep, but as everyone needs a different amount of sleep each night, the ideal amount of deep sleep looks different for each of us. And the amount of deep sleep you need can change from night to night, too.
If you want to improve your energy levels, health, wellness, and mood, focus on your total sleep time — and your deep sleep will follow.
The can work out how much sleep you need each night and guide you through 20+ sleep hygiene habits to help you get it.
And as 80% of RISE users get more sleep within five days, you could be hitting the right amount of deep sleep in no time.
If you need eight hours of sleep a night, you’ll need 48 minutes to two hours of deep sleep a night. You spend 10% to 25% of your time asleep in deep sleep, so the amount of deep sleep you need will change depending on how much sleep you need. And the deep sleep and sleep you need overall can change from night to night. Older adults may need less deep sleep and children may need more.
The ideal amount of deep sleep is 10% to 25% of your time asleep. So, if you need eight hours of sleep, the ideal amount of deep sleep would be 48 minutes to two hours. This number can change from night to night.
There is no one amount of deep sleep that is normal. You spend 10% to 25% of your time asleep in deep sleep. So, if you need eight hours of sleep, the normal amount of deep sleep would be 48 minutes to two hours. But this number can change from night to night.
Children may need more deep sleep than adults and we may need less deep sleep as we age. Adults spend 10% to 25% of their time asleep in deep sleep. So, if you need eight hours of sleep, the ideal amount of deep sleep would be 48 minutes to two hours. This number can change from night to night, however.
A lack of deep sleep can be caused by not getting enough sleep overall, drinking alcohol, pre-bed caffeine, stress, health conditions like depression and Alzheimer’s disease, and sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea. We also get less deep sleep as we age.
Get more deep sleep by getting more sleep overall, getting bright light first thing in the morning, avoiding alcohol and caffeine close to bedtime, exercising, and taking a warm shower, bath, or foot bath before bed.
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