Question 1

Which screenings does my age need?

Accepted Answer

The schedule builds by decade: blood pressure yearly from the twenties, cholesterol every five years from forty, glucose every three from forty-five, bowel screening 50-74, breast screening from the national programme start, and bone density around menopause. Each decade page lists its full set.

Question 2

How much protein do I need?

Accepted Answer

The EFSA reference for adults is 0.83 g per kg of body weight per day; from sixty-five the ESPEN guidance is 1.0-1.2 g/kg because the body builds muscle less efficiently with age. The calculators on /calorie-needs turn it into grams and foods.

Question 3

How much sleep do I need?

Accepted Answer

Seven to nine hours through the adult decades, seven to eight after sixty-five. The need barely changes with age — what changes is how well sleep is defended, and how much the day pays for losing it.

Question 4

Is this page medical advice?

Accepted Answer

No. It summarises published recommendations (NSF sleep, EFSA and ESPEN protein, the EU screening recommendation, ESC cardiovascular checks). Your own schedule belongs to you and your clinician.

Decade	Sleep	Protein	What changes
Your twenties (18-29)	7-9 h	0.8 g/kg	Peak muscle, peak bone, peak recovery — and the decade the habits set. Body weight tracks the lifestyle that starts now, and the strength built in the twenties is the reserve spent after sixty.
Your thirties (30-39)	7-9 h	0.8 g/kg	The slow decline begins — about 3-8% of muscle per decade without training, and recovery gets a day slower. Sleep gets shorter for structural reasons (children, work) exactly when the body starts needing its full amount. This is the decade where training becomes maintenance, not vanity.
Your forties (40-49)	7-9 h	0.8 g/kg	Cardiovascular risk starts compounding: lipids and blood pressure move, insulin resistance becomes common, and perimenopause begins for most women in the second half of the decade — sleep, mood and weight all shift together.
Your fifties (50-59)	7-9 h	0.8 g/kg	Menopause for women; for everyone, accelerating muscle loss, stiffer arteries, and the onset decade for most cancers the screening programmes exist to catch. Bone density starts its serious decline in women in the years after menopause.
Your sixties (60-69)	7-8 h	1.0-1.2 g/kg	The protein target rises — the body builds muscle less efficiently, so it needs more raw material for the same result. Balance, grip and leg power start predicting independence; falls stop being embarrassing and start being dangerous. Hearing and vision decline enough to notice.
Your seventies (70-79)	7-8 h	1.0-1.2 g/kg	Falls become the defining risk: one in three people over seventy falls each year, and a hip fracture changes the trajectory. Muscle and bone loss compound, appetite and thirst signals weaken, and medication lists reach their peak length — polypharmacy is itself a diagnosis.
Your eighties (80-90)	7-8 h	1.0-1.2 g/kg	Resilience narrows: the same infection, fall or medication change that was an inconvenience at seventy is a hospital stay at eighty-five. The winning strategy is depth — reserve of strength, reserve of weight, a short medication list, and social contact, which predicts survival as strongly as almost anything measured.

Health at age N

The decades

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