How Much Sleep do I Really Need?

How much sleep do I need?

Sleep. So boring. As children most of us loathed it- who wanted to be told to go to bed? As adults, no one tells us, and it seems many of us need some reminding.

Sleep is so important. Studies have linked consistently sleeping less than 6 hours a night increases the risk of certain types of cancer. Sleep deprivation has been linked to poor mood and increased feelings of hostility, making it more difficult to interact meaningfully with those you love or on the job. Poor sleep may even be a factor leading to increased risk of heart attacks and stroke

So how much sleep is enough?

The answer, as in most things in any aspect of wellness, is that it depends entirely on who is asking. For most adults, 7-9 hours of sleep is necessary to have a good night sleep. However, if you’ve been burning the midnight oil for a few nights, don’t expect that to be enough. Experts say that you need to slowly pay yourself back for the sleep that you have missed. You can do this by adding an hour or two to your regularly needed amount of sleep for a few days in a row to help pay back your sleep debt. Do not expect to sleep in for an hour one or two days on the weekend and go back to feeling refreshed. A sleep debt can take two or more weeks to pay back, depending on how long you have been neglecting your z’s.

Too much sleep is a problem as well. Sleeping more than 11 hours a day (consistently, not when catching up) is actually linked to a higher risk of death, and may be a sign of broken or poor sleep, caused by things like obstructive sleep apnea. If you feel like you are suddenly requiring much more sleep than normal for you, or you are sleeping 8-10 hours a night regularly and still requiring frequent naps or having daytime sleepiness, it is a good idea to bring this up to your health care provider.

In the end, there’s not much use in trying to trick your body out of sleep- it will catch up with you eventually. He best thing to do is get adequate sleep as often and as regularly as possible. Check out our guide to getting to sleep and staying asleep the target wholeness way here.