It is Sleep Awareness Week (March 6-13) — so what better time to talk about the recommended amount of sleep we should be getting?

According to updated recommendations released by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and the Sleep Research Society (SRS) last June, adults should be sleeping for 7 hours or more every night. This suggestion came after a panel — comprising people that the AASM and SRS considers to be “15 of the nation’s foremost sleep experts” — conducted a year-long project reviewing published sleep studies.

Our own Orfeu Buxton, an associate professor of biobehavioral health, was one of the 15 experts making these recommendations.

In the statement announcing the new recommendation, Buxton and colleagues noted, “Healthy sleep requires adequate duration, good quality, appropriate timing and regularity, and the absence of sleep disturbances or disorders.”

So how does one achieve healthy sleep, you might ask? Check out the tips we posted yesterday, provided by Anne-Marie Chang, an assistant professor of biobehavioral health.

Members of the news media interested in talking to Buxton or Chang should contact Tori Indivero at 814-865-6071 or vmi1@psu.edu.