How much sleep is actually necessary? The average adult male needs seven and a half to nine hours of sleep each night. Sleep is a very important act in daily life because it keeps the body healthy and stable, it keeps the mind focused for a full day, it alters feelings and emotions to an insufficient extent and it causes car accidents, sometimes fatal. when drivers drive while deprived of sleep. Each person needs a different amount of sleep in order to keep their body healthy and stable. According to Smith, Robinson and Segal, the average child, aged five to twelve, needs ten to eleven hours of sleep each night, while adolescents only need eight and a half to ten hours of sleep every night. The average adult, age eighteen or older, needs seven and a half to nine hours of sleep each night. These studies by Smith, Robinson and Segal are just averages, meaning one adult might get by on just six hours of sleep each day, while another person might need ten hours. Therefore, each person's body and mind requires a different amount of sleep each night to function each day. “However, it is important to pay attention to your own individual needs by assessing how you feel during different sleep periods” (“How Much Sleep Do We Really Get”). Sometimes the body can function on a little sleep or maybe it needs more sleep. It all depends on the body of a specific person at a given time. If the amount of sleep an individual needs is not found and therefore not acquired, loss of sleep increases the risk of high blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, performance, mood and diseases associated with these risk factors, such as diabetes and heart. disease (Mann). With each...... middle of paper ...... how-much-sleep-do-you-really-need>."Sleep and mood." Sleep. Np, and Web. May 18, 2014."Sleep deprivation affects driving safety." Robert Wood Johnson Health Center.NP, nd Web. May 18, 2014. qHealthSleepCare_Driving.aspx>. Smith, Melinda, Lawrence Robinson and Robert Segal. “How much sleep do you need?” » Help guide. Np, March 2014. Web. May 6, 2014. "Teenagers and sleep." National Sleep Foundation. Np, and Web. May 7, 2014. “How much sleep do we really need? » National Sleep Foundation. Np, and Web. May 6, 2014.how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need>.