It's Not How Much But How Well You Sleep
We often hear about how important it is to get eight hours of sleep every night and that this is normal and necessary for good health. But the truth is that healthy adults have different individual sleep needs. For most adults, the recommended amount of sleep is between seven to nine hours, but you may still be a “normal” sleeper if you get anywhere between six and ten hours! In fact, some people can get by with less than six hours of sleep and without any significant daytime consequences. They are called “short sleepers,” but they comprise a very small percentage (less than 5%) of the population. Chances are, you are not one of these naturally “short sleepers.”
How Do I Know If I Am Getting Enough Sleep?
Most healthy adults with busy lives tend to get 6.5 to 8.5 hours of sleep per night. The key to understanding how much sleep you personally need is based on how you feel during the day. Let’s say you’re getting seven hours of sleep on average, and during the daytime, you’re able to meet your responsibilities, do the things you need to get done, and do the things you enjoy doing without any significant impairment. This would suggest that you’re probably getting enough sleep. It’s normal for all of us to feel a bit sleepy after lunch because of a natural dip in our biological (circadian) rhythm, but post-lunch sleepiness only lasts about an hour.
How Good is as Important as How Much
When assessing how well we sleep, we typically think in terms of how many hours of sleep we get. But the quality of the sleep you get is just as important, and maybe even more so, than the quantity. Adult sleep is comprised of four stages: stage 1, stage 2, stage 3 (deep sleep), and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. The most valuable and refreshing stages are stage 3 and REM. This means that a person who sleeps only six hours but gets a high amount of stage 3 and REM is much more likely to wake up feeling well-rested than someone who gets eight hours made mostly up of lighter stage 1 and 2 sleep.
Quantity vs. Quality, Try This Challenge:
For the next couple of weeks, pay attention to how much sleep you get at night and how rested you feel the next day. It’s likely that on the nights you get a good amount of sleep, you’ll have a stronger next day.
If you notice that no matter how much sleep you get at night, you always feel fatigued or tired the next day, it might mean that the quality of your sleep is the problem. Sleep quality can be negatively affected by a number of medical conditions and other sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, chronic pain, and depression. If you suspect that your sleep quality is poor, it might be time to visit your doctor for a check-up!
