Cartilage turning into bone
How Do You Grow Taller?
Bones lengthen at soft zones near their ends, mostly while you are asleep, until those zones close for good.
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Step 1 of 5
Bones do not stretch, they lengthen at the ends.
Near each end of a long bone sits a plate of cartilage. New cartilage is added on one side and turned into hard bone on the other.
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Step 2 of 5
Most of the work happens while you sleep.
The hormone that drives growth is released in pulses, and the biggest pulses come during deep sleep. Sleep is not optional for growing.
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Step 3 of 5
You really are taller in the morning.
The discs between your vertebrae squash under your own weight all day and swell back overnight. It is about a centimetre, and it is not growth.
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Step 4 of 5
Growth comes in bursts, not smoothly.
Children can add several centimetres in a few months and then almost nothing for a year. Aching legs during a burst are common and normal.
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Step 5 of 5
Then the plates close and it is over.
In the late teens the cartilage plates finish turning into solid bone. After that a bone can heal and thicken, but it cannot get longer.
Doctors can read an x-ray of a child's hand and estimate how much growing is left from how open the plates still look.
The short version
You grow at cartilage plates near the ends of your bones, mostly in deep sleep, until those plates harden and your height is final.
Try it yourself
Measure yourself first thing in the morning and again at bedtime. The difference is your spinal discs, not growth.
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