Do you get enough sleep at night? Well, first of all the amount of sleep you need to function properly varies with age, but the amount of sleep people need reduces as they get older. The amount of sleep people get can also affect how they act. However, there are numerous ways people can catch up on sleep. Sleep affects how people act; sleep allows the body to perform maintenance to prepare people for the next day. When you are tired, always sleep and don't try to force yourself awake with caffeine or unhealthy substances. People should always sleep because if they stay awake for too long the consequences could be very serious. Sleep is essential for people's well-being. The amount of sleep people need to live healthily and happily varies with age. The older people get, the more sleep they need. Younger children need about 2 hours more than a full grown adult. So an elderly person needs about 1 hour less than a full grown adult to function properly. Last year scientists ran a controlled experiment on children aged 10 to 18 on how much sleep each group needed, and it took place over the course of a month, so it's a pretty accurate representation of how much sleep they needed. every age group needs. “For older teenagers, seven hours a night was enough. The optimal amount of sleep for 12-year-olds was higher, around eight hours, while 10-year-olds did best with nine hours” (Rubin). This shows that when young people need more sleep to function properly. So when young people don't get enough sleep, it affects them much more than it would an older person as they need sleep much more than an older person would. So sleep is really important for young people; there was another experiment with older individuals......middle of paper......ng." Www.sleepfoundation.org. National Sleep Foundation, nd Web. May 15, 2014. .Rubin, Rita "How much sleep do teenagers really need? Maybe less than you think." Www.today.com. brigham-young-university, nd Web. May 8, 2014. .Smith, Melinda, Lawrence Robinson, and Robert Segal. "How Much Sleep Do You Need?" Www.helpguide .org . Helpguide.org, 2014. Web. May 8, 2014. "Teens and Sleep." www.kidshealth.org. Nemours Foundation, 1995. Web. 7 May 2014. .