How Many Years of Your Life Do You Spend Sleeping?

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The Mirror reports that humans, on average, spend a total of 227,468 hours, or 26 years, of their lives sleeping. According to the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, this amount translates into one-third, or 33 percent, of a person’s total lifetime spent sleeping.

Despite the widespread 20th-century belief that sleeping is leisure and a passive activity after other, essential, activities are done, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke states that sleeping is necessary for normal body function. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the adult body needs 7 to 8 hours of sleep every day.