(Huffington) Diagnosing your sleep deprivation just got a whole lot easier.

Recently the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society arrived at a consensus recommendation on just how much time adults between the ages of 18 and 60 need to log each night — and it turns out that seven hours of sleep is truly the magic number.

ā€œSleep is critical to health, along with a healthy diet and regular exercise,ā€ Dr. Nathaniel F. Watson, the incoming AASM president and consensus panel moderator, said in a statement. ā€œOur consensus panel found that sleeping six or fewer hours per night is inadequate to sustain health and safety in adults, and agreed that seven or more hours of sleep per night is recommended for all healthy adults.ā€

Over a 12-month period, the collaborative team of 15 experts from the two organizations scouredĀ 5,314 scientific articlesĀ that address the relationship between sleep duration and health to arrive at their ideal snooze time recommendation. They also factored in nine different health categories — general health, cardiovascular health, metabolic health, mental health, immunologic function, human performance, cancer, pain, and mortality — and how they interact with sleep time.

ā€œMore than a third of the population is not getting enough sleep, so the focus needs to be on achieving the recommended minimum hours of nightly sleep,ā€Ā said Watson. Sleep deprivation, or logging less than seven hours each night, is a public health epidemic, exacerbating health problemsĀ like a weight gain and obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and stroke, depression, and increased risk of death. It’s also associated with reduced immune function, increased pain and impaired job performance.

The panel was clear with minimum sleep requirements, but they did not set a maximum in the way the National Sleep FoundationĀ did earlier this year. While recent research has highlighted how often sleeping more than nine hours per nightĀ as an adult can be a symptom of a separate health issue, this panel of experts noted that a high quantity of sleep can be appropriate for young adults, as well as individuals recovering from sleep debt or struggling with other illnesses.

ā€œLong sleep duration is more likely to reflect chronic illness than to cause it, and few experimental laboratory studies have examined the health effects of long sleep duration,” Watson said.

They also noted how it’s not just the quantity of sleep that matters, but when it is achieved and how consistently we meet our sleep needs over a given period time. Good sleep hygieneĀ is required to make the most of the minutes you actually spend between the sheets.

So take it from the experts on this one, and go to bed already.

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If you have problems with sleeping or staying asleep, try Reflexology! We have been successful in helping our clients to reset their inner clock. To schedule a free consultation, call the HealingPlaceMed at (508) 359-6463

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