Good quality sleep ensures you’re getting the physical, mental, and emotional benefits you need from your rest. It allows your body and brain to recover and ensures you wake up feeling like your best self.  

Most adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night. But spending enough hours in bed doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting the highest quality sleep.

There are three main factors that affect sleep quality

1. Duration is getting enough sleep to feel rested and alert the next day. Most adults need a consistent amount of sleep each night, and regularly falling short can affect your concentration, mood, and overall wellbeing.  ‍
2. Continuity refers to how uninterrupted your sleep is. Waking up even briefly during the night can prevent you from progressing through the different stages of sleep. This explains why you may spend plenty of time in bed but wake up feeling tired.  ‍
3. Depth is about how restorative your sleep is. Deeper stages of sleep are when your body and brain do most of their recovery work. If you spend too much time in lighter sleep, you’re less likely to feel refreshed, even after a full night's rest.  

How is your sleep quality?

The National Sleep Foundation reviewed 277 research studies before deciding that sleep quality can be determined by four factors:  

1. Sleep latency - How long it takes you to fall asleep  
2. Awakenings - The number of times you wake up during the night  
3. Wake after sleep onset - The amount of time you are awake after first falling asleep  
4. Sleep efficiency - The ratio of time asleep vs time lying in bed  

How do I know if I’m getting good quality sleep?

To find out whether you are getting a good night's sleep, the National Sleep Foundation recommends the checklists below based on your age. If you answer “yes” to most of the questions, you will likely have good sleep quality!  

Adults between 18 and 64 years old

• Did you fall asleep in 30 minutes or less?  
• Did you wake up 1 time or less during the night?  
• In total, were you awake for 20 minutes or less after falling asleep?  
• Were you mostly asleep while in bed (i.e., 7 out of 8 hours)?  

Adults aged 65+

• Did you fall asleep in 30 minutes or less?  
• Did you wake up 2 times or less during the night?  
• In total, were you awake 30 minutes or less after falling asleep?  
• Were you mostly asleep while in bed (i.e., 7 out of 8 hours)?  

The relationship between sleep and hearing

Sleep and hearing are much more connected than most people realise.  

When you begin to lose your hearing, your brain doesn’t receive all the information it needs and has to work overtime to fill in the gaps, often without you realising it. This extra effort can increase your stress and leave you feeling on edge or mentally wired, making it harder to switch off at night.  

Hearing loss can also affect sleep quality. Research suggests that people with hearing loss may spend more time in lighter stages of sleep and wake more often during the night. This can mean less time in the deeper, more restorative stages of sleep, affecting your concentration and mental resilience, making listening feel harder and background noise more overwhelming.  

Unfortunately, this can become a two‑way cycle, so if you’ve noticed changes in both your sleep and your hearing, it’s worth looking at them together rather than in isolation. To book an Ear360 appointment, please get in touch by calling 0800 737 662 or clicking here.

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