Showerthought: That 8-hour sleep rule might be total bunk

I just read a study from UCLA that says 7 hours is actually the sweet spot for most adults, not 8. I always thought I was being lazy sleeping 6.5 hours, but apparently some people's genetics just need less. The article I found said your risk of heart problems actually goes up past 7.5 hours for certain folks. Has anyone else looked into this and found numbers that surprised them?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

caseym482mo ago

Found a study that linked sleep quality over quantity, where people getting 6 hours of solid deep sleep felt better than those lying in bed for 9 hours with interruptions. It made me wonder if the real problem is people forcing themselves into a one size fits all schedule when their bodies have different natural rhythms. Maybe doctors should be telling us to focus on how rested we feel instead of stressing about hitting a specific number on the clock.

6

patricia_green212mo ago

Oh I gotta chime in here... that study about 6 hours of solid deep sleep is a little misleading. Deep sleep is only one stage, you also need REM sleep for memory and processing and light sleep to transition between cycles. Even if you get 3 hours of deep sleep (which is already on the high side for most people), the other 3 hours of light and REM are doing important stuff too. So thinking you can just compress everything into 6 hours of only deep sleep isn't really how sleep architecture works... your brain needs those lighter stages to complete the full cycle properly.

1