I know that the old chestnut saying "We must have 8 hours of sleep every night" still prevails today. Rubbish ! This originates from when times were very different than they are now. The amount of sleep we need varies widely and is a function of individual activity throughout the day and individual habits. It also varies with age, the older you get, the less sleep you need, usually a function of reduced activity, but is also dependent on general health. 6-8 hours per night is a good guide for most people. I have on average 6 hours each night and do not feel I need any more. I have no wish to waste one third of my life or 25-30 years in a self induced coma. There is a long list of great leaders and famous people over history who only had 4-6 hours each night or in an aggregated napping total. How much sleep do you have ?
Let us travel in time before that old chestnut said that. Let us imagine what life was before the Industrial Revolution. In fact let's say a farmer's family gets up in the morning to get to work. At dawn when the sun is rising. Enough that there is light to see so they can see what they are doing. I want to give them lanterns but I keep thinking about a burning corn field due to said usage of a latern so that's why I did not throw that in. Now this was back then when we didn't have Sleep Scientists running around making statements like that old chestnut did. Or glossy magazines that proclaimed these things from the magazine rack in order to get bought. Another thing is they do hard work / manual labor all day. They weren't cooped up in an office under flourescent lighting with air conditioning all they long sitting in chairs. So their bodies needed more rest to recuperate for the next day's trials. Old chestnut can't just generalize it that everyone requires the same amount of time before they biologically refreshen for the next dawn yeah? Look, all I am saying is that if the body needs sleep. It will get it's sleep whether we like it or not. Too bad we live in the Modern Age where if you sleep on the job you could lose your job and get fired. Or fall asleep driving at the wheel of your SUV due to microsleep. Sleep is a good thing. Now if you have PTSD then maybe you'll have a hard time sleeping to sleep away that stress. Make yourself tired and go to sleep. If you don't get enough sleep you spazz out, make mistakes, can't think straight.
I'm a mom of a hungry 9 month old, so not much lol. I work full time, have two kids, maintain my own home and am woken up two or three times a night by my little one. Once they are asleep I also need an hour or two to wind down and have a glass of wine. By the time I get settled into bed its pretty late. In total I probably get about four or five hours a night.
It's good to sleep 7-8 hours a day. You can regenerate then and if you sleep more you loose your energy.
I sleep on avg. 6-7 hrs a night. Anything more seems like overkill... and I'll feel tired the whole day.
It varies greatly for me every night, depending on what I have done earlier that day, typically from 4-9 hours.
I read an article once about a study that showed that too little AND too much sleep can cause negative health effects for you. Recently I have been getting 8 hours of sleep each night and I wake up feeling quite refreshed.