How Much Sleep Does an Average Person Need?

[heartless]

How much sleep does an average person should get?
I usually get 6-7 hours a day, but only with a clock alarm.
I go at 12pm and wake-up at 6:40
but I used to go to sleep at 2am and wake up at 5:45.
With my sleeping is like this,
when I sleep more than 8 hours, then I lack any energy for doing anything in a day. For example, at summer, I've been waking up, past 1pm and had absolutely no desire for doing anything but lying whole day whatsoever. If I didn't set up my clock alarm, I would sleep more than 8 hours. <- always!

When I've been waking up at 5:45, then I found sleeping 4-5 hours most efficient out of all. However I felt complitely terrible right when I woke up. I was like zombie from the Resident Evil movie.

How much sleep do you usually get?

 

[DaveC426913]

You need to get into a routine. That's the key.

When you were waking up at 5:45, you were keeping a better routine than when you were waking up in the middle of the afternoon.

Yes, getting too much sleep can make you tired - for the same reason - because you're screwing up your rhythm.

P.S. If I had to guess, I'd guess that you're in your ... early twenties? Teenagers are invulnerable and immortal, but the first signs that you are mortal tend to come in your twenties. Good guess?

 

[DaveC426913]

Just checked. You are a bit younger than I theorized.

At your age, you should be just coming *into* the prime of your invulnerability and immortality.

 

[Moonbear]

If you do oversleep and are really sluggish feeling, force yourself to do some vigorous exercise. It sounds counter-intuitive at first, like exercise should tire you out more, but it'll actually help wake you up during the day and get you to sleep better at night. The reason you'll feel really tired if you sleep until 1 in the afternoon is that your sleep-wake cycle is out of phase with the day-night cycle, and a lot of other body functions that are rhythmic too.

There used to be a saying, years ago, that an hour of sleep before midnight is worth 2 hours after. While not something you need to rigidly adhere to, the general idea works, at least in my experience. If you get to sleep a little earlier at night, you'll find you can also wake up earlier with less total hours of sleep than if you go to sleep much later. Of course, the hard part for many is falling asleep early.

 

[Moonbear]

Just checked. You are a bit younger than I theorized.

At your age, you should be just coming *into* the prime of your invulnerability and immortality.

He's in what I call "those sleepy teenage years" when teenagers would sleep all day, like cats, if they could. I've known a lot of people, myself included, who went through that phase. I think it accompanied summer vacation and suddenly being old enough to be allowed to stay up late at night, but still too young for it to be a good idea.

 

[vsage]

Depending on your age the average person I know gets around 8 hours of sleep a night, which is a pretty good number. Back in high school I used to get around 7 hours of sleep a night and could wake up pretty easily at 6am, but during college I'd usually get less than 7 hours and be completely inattentive for my first class of the day. Not coincidentally, the only two classes I've gotten C's in (I've never even gotten below a B+ otherwise!) have come from classes that I had before 10am.

You can feel ok during the day on very little sleep, but it's very hard to notice if your mental faculties are all there. Four hours of sleep is not a good idea if you're taking tests :p.

 

[DaveC426913]

In my 30s and now 40s, I am getting a pretty good idea of how much sleep I need. 7.5 hours. If I only get 7, I can tell it's difficult for me the next day.

 

[Hootenanny]

My best sleep period is around 6 hours. As Moonbear said, I find that exercise, espcially early in the morning tends to invigorate oneself. Four day's of the week I rise at 0545, get some breakfast, then get to the gym for around 0645. I do an hours exercise, both weights and aerobic work. On the other week day I usually rise around 0700. On saturdays I usually aim to get up around nineish but on sunday I have a proper lie in and stay in bed aslong as possible

~H