How much sleep is enough?

[IronMaidenfan#1]

The amount of sleep required and the amount of stress the person is under must surely be linked. If chronically stressed through work, bad diet, training, life stress etc... then I would imagine that you need more. This is actually my experience as well. I have had periods were I have eaten super clean, removed sugar from the diet, plenty of water and a bit less coffee than now, high protein intake, spent less time in front of computer screens etc... along with 5 workouts a week (between 30-45 mins per workout in duration) and I found that I would go to bed at 11pm, fall asleep fast and wake up at 5.30am the next day - feeling alive and ready to go!

The role of having good insulin sensitivity must have some sort of factor in how you feel after being asleep.

At the moment my life is a bit up and down but not bad, I am averaging about 7 hours of sleep and feeling good but not great like mentioned before.

[closetfighter]

conditions are so important, and havaen't been mentioned yet.

do you fall asleep with the tv blaring and your computer fan running next to your head?? chances are even if you get 8 hours, you'll still feel unrested.

do you fall asleep with lights on, and the blinds open so when the sun comes up it pours all into your rooms? chances are you won't get a good sleep.

my recipe for success.

1. pitch black room
2. not a single sounds coming from anything. tv off. computer off. not even any music.
3. one giant bong rip usually knocks me the fuck out.

[blink_man182]

I'm fine with like 5 hours but that is because I'm used to a hectic schedule. However I wish I could get like 8ish hours a night but its not possible at this point in my life.

[Gunny]

Originally Posted by cooks1

Here is a 100% guaranteed way to find out EXACTLY how much sleep you need.

Day 1) Go to sleep. Do not set your alarm clock. You wake up when you wake up. This day does not count. Because you could have been sleep deprived from previous days.

Day 2) Go to sleep. Do not set your alarm clock. You wake up when you wake up. How ever long you slept, that is roughly how much sleep you need.

What if you're the type who wakes up multiple times throughout the night?

[carlsonbjj]

7 hours

[KILL KILL]

As a Marine I was conditioned to sleep 5 hours max. Any more and I didn't feel right. I kept this up for years with no issues. Now I need atleast 7 or 8. Any less and I feel like garbage.

[MightySparrow]

Sleep needs vary a lot between individuals. Anything between 5 hours and 9 hours a day is probably "normal". Most adults will probably feel best at 7-8 I'd say.

Then it depends on your age as well. You tend to need less sleep the older you get. So an average teenager will probably want 8-9 hours a day and an old man maybe 5-6 hours.

I'm not fond of taking naps in the afternoon but others like it, so why not if it works for you.

In all though, I think 5.30 a day sounds like enough sleep to get by but probably too little to function optimally in work, study or training. You could try though. With a bit of luck, you might be one of those enviable persons who don't need more than that.

[wisdom blows]

6-7 functional, 8-9 optimal

less than 5 and I have a hard time getting through the day, let alone training.

[wowspare]

Originally Posted by Mumrik

It is indeed a very individual thing from all that I've read.
I've personally never found a way to feel okay about less that ~10 hours of sleep and I can sleep up to around 18 hours if I don't set an alarm. Sucks for me, I'm tired most of the time because it's really hard to budget that much time for sleeping when you also have problems falling asleep.