I get asked this question by my clients a lot. And sleep related issues were coming up so often in my monthly Ask Robyn calls (part of the membership benefits of my EmpowerEd program) that I decided to do an in-depth webinar on sleep. You can watch the webinar ‘Secrets of Superior Sleep’ and all previous webinars (covering topics such as bone health and gluten) as well as recordings of past Ask Robyn calls, by joining EmpowerEd.
Now, in case you were hoping there’s a nice, simple, one-size-fits-all answer to the question “How much sleep do I really need?”, there’s not. The common wisdom that everyone requires 8 hours of sleep per night is not supported by sleep research. In fact, about 5% of people are ‘short sleepers’ – that is, they have one or more rare genetic mutations that allow them to thrive on 6 hours or less per night (1, 2).
On the other hand, around 2% of the population are ‘long sleepers’ – they need 9 or more hours of sleep per night to function well (3).
Both long and short sleeping patterns usually emerge in late childhood.
Most adults require somewhere between 7 and 8 hours of sleep per night. But how do you know whether you’re getting too much, too little or just the amount of sleep? Well, Goldilocks, a simple experiment will help you pin it down.
You’ll need to stick to a consistent wake-up time for this experiment, even on weekends. Just say you normally go to bed at 11 pm, and have to be up at 6.30 am to get to work or school. Try going to bed 15 minutes earlier, and see if you still sleep through to 6.30 am. If you do, you may be habitually short-changing yourself on sleep. Try winding back your bedtime another 15 minutes the following night. If you still sleep through to 6.30 am, wind it back again.
Repeat until you reach the point where you’re waking up spontaneously at 6.30 am. This is your optimal sleeping time. (It may vary a little from time to time, depending on factors like stress, illness or pregnancy, but people tend to be pretty consistent in their sleep time requirements throughout most of their adulthood.)
If, on the other hand, you wake up at 6.15 am when you go to bed at 10.45, you probably need about 7.5 hours of sleep, so go back to your regular bedtime.
The aim is to get to the point where you awaken spontaneously (i.e. without an alarm), feeling refreshed. What if you never wake up refreshed, no matter how much sleep you get? You may have an underlying illness that needs to be addressed; or you may just have some bad habits that interfere with your sleep quality, such as:
- Not getting enough exercise during the day; sedentary people have inefficient sleep compared to those who work out;
- Using caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and other drugs that mess with the various stages of sleep;
- Too much bright light exposure at night, especially the blue light emitted by screens (install f.lux on all your devices to filter out the blue light that keeps you awake; and turn those devices OFF at least an hour before bedtime);
- Failing to wind down adequately before bedtime;
- Not dealing with stress and anxiety adequately.
See my article Get a good night’s sleep – at last! for helpful tips on improving sleep quality.
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