Overview

• A comfortable mattress in a cool, dark and quiet bedroom—using blackout curtains, earplugs or white-noise machines—promotes deeper, more restorative sleep.
• Limiting screens at least 30 minutes before bed and avoiding caffeine, alcohol or nicotine in the evening preserves natural melatonin cycles.
• Updated guidelines call for 15–16 hours of sleep for newborns, around 10 hours for young children, nine hours for teens and seven to eight hours for adults.
• Recent studies show that advancing bedtime without adding hours of sleep boosts training frequency, energy and muscle recovery while reducing risks linked to post-midnight sleep.
• Experts favor consistent sleep schedules and non-pharmacological therapies, such as cognitive-behavioral techniques and chronotherapy, to optimize rest at every age.