The amount of sleep required differ from person to person and depends on a number possible of factors including, age, genetic make-up, the amount of exercise you get, what you do during the day, the quality of your sleep and whether you are still growing.
- On average we need about 8 hours of sleep. There are short sleepers who only need 4 and also a few
long sleepers who may need 12. The average hovers around 8.
Our biological clocks run on a 25 hour cycle, rather than the 24 hours we have tuned our daily lives around. This is why it is easier for most people to go to bed later, than it is to wake up early.
- A lot of people have no difficulty sleeping at all and may even sleep excessively and still feel fatigued. They ask: ‘How much sleep do I need?’ Because they assume that there’s always a link between the amount of sleep attained and the amount of energy they have. Often this is the case, as sleep will help restore muscular energy, alertness and concentration.
- You may in fact be getting more sleep than you think, but just not quality and restorative sleep. This
could be due to tension, stress, worrying thoughts or bad sleep habits such as excessive mental or physical exertion close to bed time. A lot of people also have the notion that they have to sleep 8 hours a night and that if they don’t, they will feel tired the next day.
- If you find yourself feeling sleepy in the afternoon when bored you are not getting enough sleep. If you feel sleepy in the afternoon it has nothing to do with what you ate or being bored it has to do with sleep deprivation which will accumulate. So at the beginning of the week you may not feel as sleepy as you do at the end of the week. That is sleep loss adding up. It is more difficult without the studies to tell if you are getting to much sleep, but I would wager very few people get too much sleep.
There really isn’t a straightforward answer when people ask ‘How much sleep do I need?’ The important thing to remember is that there are many factors that cause fatigue and insomnia such as a poor diet, lack of exercise, lack of sunlight and too much stress.
