How much sleep is needed/recommended.

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Small_Fryz

Small_Fryz

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Small_Fryz
Im 18 year old male, work a full time job (8:30am - 5:30pm) 6 days a week.

Ive never had a cup of coffee in my life and ive had about 4 cans of energy drink in my life. I barely drink any source of caffine/soda/coke.

Now ive found that i need approx 6 - 8hrs sleep. Any less and i can be quite tired any more and its time i feel im wasting by sleeping when i could be awake. How much sleep is recommended for a person my age? Why is it when i have too much sleep its as bad as not having enough. Some days i can have 4 - 5hrs sleep if that and feel the same as if i had 8 - 10. Every morning i have to wake up at 7am and no matter how much sleep ive had im always very tired until ive had a shower and starting moving about. Come 7:30 - 7:45am im wide awake and ready to start the day. Usually at about 7 - 8pm i could fall asleep if i want and im a bit worn down but by 9pm this has usally passed and then i get a 2nd wind and can stay up to 1 - 2am without hassle (now its 1:30am for instance). Most nights i go to bed about 12am or at least before 1am (tonight ive been watching smallville 3rd season... 6 eps in a row haha).

Anyway i just wanted to know how much sleep should i be getting? I dont want to have to little but i dont want to be wasting time sleeping if i dont need to either.

I know its different if your sick or youve had a massive party the night before but im talking about under normal circumstances.

anyway i better be off to sleep lol, gotta wake up 7am sharp ready for a full days work tomo.. today..
 
6-8hrs is perfectly adequate for someone of your age and vocation. Best way to make-up for any short falls is to, on your day off, get up when you naturally wake up - if that's possible. Your body knows when it needs to rest, listen to it.

A lack of sleep is something not to worry too much about, the more you worry over a lack of sleep, the more likely you are to suffer from insomnia - it's a vicious circle you don't want to get into.
 
I can survive on 6-7 hours of sleep on a normal working week. Like yourself, I never drink coffee, tea or products like Red Bull. I work a 9 hour day from 9.00am till 6.00pm. I then do an hour and a half at the gym monday to Friday. Come the weekend I will lay in on a Saturday till about 11.00am and I normally feel quite refreshed.

Depending on the person, I think the minimum you should have is around 6 hours depending on how strenuos your job is. I've been told that 8 hours is a healthy amount.

I recently went a "gentlemans" holiday (I prefer that to lads) and we didn't go to bed before 7.00am (clubs shut at 6.00am) in the morning and we were up at 9.00am everyday. At the end of the week I couldn't believe how rough I felt. The last night of clubbing I literally could not keep my eyes open. Weirdest feeling I've ever had.
 
7 hours is recommended - decreasing as you get older.
 
Sleep goes in cycles, so the tiredness you feel is usually down to where you are in the cycle when you wake/are woken. Each cycle involves a period of deep rest and a period of dreaming, and the cycle lasts for somewhere around 4hrs on average. This depends upon how tired you are, and your age/gender etc. If you're very tired, you'll skip the deep rest and go straight to the dream phase, as this is known to have beneficial effects on the brain, and is preferable to your body than the rest-sleep.

I find that my cycle is around 3.5hrs, and I can't really function properly unless I have at least one full cycle. Most people will not get any real benefit from more than two complete cycles, so you rarely need more than 8hrs sleep unless you've been under physical stress in the time preceding that sleep.

Anyone who thinks that they understand the minimum sleep that they can get away with, and who does not have children, is deluding themselves.
 
I sleep way too much lately. Usually between 8 and 10 hours a night. I’m on holidays so I let myself get away with it. ;)

Also, I was sick for a day a few weeks ago, and slept for 14 hours straight, when I got up I was 100%.
 
8 hours of sleep should be okay for a person your age.When you grow older (and most probably work harder) your daily sleep cycle changes and becomes shorter (like 6-7 hours) I don't know how your sleep cycle has any effect from the weather or surroundings.I kinda feel weird when i differentiate when i woke up in a city or in a rural surrounding (somewhere peace and quiet) i really do feel better when i wake up in a village.(i can get a good sleep for 6 hours usually,and later have to bathe in cold water.How refreshing...)

So it does depend how you want to sleep,maybe you could have less sleep during the weekdays and sleep more on the weekends.Its not the same routine everyone does,its different for each person.Sometimes even 8 hours of sleep is not enough for me (after a long day).So i don't know how does your sleep cycle is or what activities you do during the day.So i may not help you much,but this are just my suggestion (a stupid one at that)
 
Giles has it right – you have to pay attention to your sleep cycle. If you sleep 7 hours but wake up at the end of your cycle, you’ll feel much more refreshed than if you sleep 9 hours but wake up in the middle of a cycle.
 
TheCracker
A lack of sleep is something not to worry too much about, the more you worry over a lack of sleep, the more likely you are to suffer from insomnia - it's a vicious circle you don't want to get into.
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What some calls insomnia, I call sleep being overrated. :dopey:

As a general rule, I just go until I pass out unless it's a situation I can't. :grumpy:
 
I bounce between getting 4-6 hours when I have to work in the morning (staying up on the internet -- my fault entirely), and 10-12 hours when I don't have to do anything the next day and don't have to set my alarm. I tend to give myself 7-8 hours if I work or have school in the afternoon/early evening.

I also need a full hour of snooze-button-pressing before getting up, and if I didn't have my alarm clock all the way on the other side of the room from my bed, I'd either keep pressing snooze until the alarm stopped, or turn the alarm off out of annoyance. Getting up and walking over helps, although it still sometimes takes several minutes for me to even notice the alarm to begin with.

Yet somehow, my cell phone alarm is far more effective. :indiff:

Anyway, Small_fryz, your sleeping habits sound normal to me. Though, unlike you, I usually have a soda to help get me going if I work in the morning.
 
The best answer: Listen to your body. Everyone has a different Circadian rhythm.
In my youth, I could go for weeks on end with 4-6 hours a night. Then about once a month or so, I'd sleep for about 10-12 hours.
As I've gotten older, I wake up approximately 5hours and 30 minutes after I go to sleep give or take 15 minutes.
Of course, now about ONCE A WEEK, I take about 10-12 Hours for a long sleep.
When I have to get up at 3:30AM, I get to bed by 10PM and I usually wake up 10-30 minutes before my clock goes off.

But your body will let you know when it's time to sleep and get up and go.
You just have to be in tune to it. It sounds pretty much like you are.
 
I usually give myself 7 hours a night. But I find myself waking up an hour or so before I have to get up, this happens quite frequently. I usually just stay in bed for most of the time left though. On the occasions I don't wake up before the alarm, the snooze button get's a bashing.
 
After working long enough, you short-change yourself on sleep, even on weekends, because you don't want to waste all of your free-time sleeping :D. Also eliminates the possibility of insomnia...
 
During my time at the army I found out what is not a good amount of sleep... my shifts were royally screwed up (thanks to the lazy idiot who made the shift lists), resulting in me getting to sleep at around 2:00 and then waking up at 4:00... I was pretty broken after eight days. :ouch:

- R -
 
Wolfe
I also need a full hour of snooze-button-pressing before getting up, and if I didn't have my alarm clock all the way on the other side of the room from my bed, I'd either keep pressing snooze until the alarm stopped, or turn the alarm off out of annoyance. Getting up and walking over helps, although it still sometimes takes several minutes for me to even notice the alarm to begin with.
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I also have a snooze pattern in the morning. I usually set my phone alarm to go off every 15 minutes for an hour. It helps me to gradually wake up rather than having to get up dead on when I have to get ready. I'm not a morning person either, I cannot speak in the morning to anyone until I get into work.
 
What if you have to go to work/school and have the choice of sleeping for two hours? Is it better to take those two hours?
 
Yes. Two hours is far from ideal, but any sleep is better than none. And if you have the chance for two hours of sleep at school/work, even better! :D
 
Most people will recommend 10 hours, but that's for an aged person below 16 I guess...6-8 hours should pretty much do it for you 👍

When going to school, I try not to go to bed later then 11pm, otherwise, I'm a disaster at school the following day. Also, hereby, I'm sure I've gotten 7 hours of sleep so I'm fit everyday 👍


However, it's vacation so I get way too much sleep actually :lol: I go to bed around midnight and sleep to 11 am, sometimes noon which should be more then enough :lol:

Anyway, if you feel comfortable with the sleep you're getting right now, keep at it 👍
 
I have no idea how accurate this is, but someone once told me that your body clock resets itself every 4 hours. So you'd get just as much rest out of 4 hours sleep as if you'd had 8, but if you sleep 9 hours its like you've only been asleep for 1.

I'm always tired though so I can't give any personal advice :P
 
OpheliaMontague
I have no idea how accurate this is, but someone once told me that your body clock resets itself every 4 hours. So you'd get just as much rest out of 4 hours sleep as if you'd had 8, but if you sleep 9 hours its like you've only been asleep for 1.

I'm always tired though so I can't give any personal advice :P
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You sure can't! :p

That's pretty much what Giles was talking about before, I think. Although it's not 4 hours for every person, each person is different. I think it's around 4 hours for me, though. Maybe I can cram in that extra few hours of FIFA before I go to sleep..? I'm only doing it for health and body reasons, I swear!

I'm actually going to +rep Giles for that, because that's something that's going to stick with me forever, and I love that kind of knowledge.

..and it may just get me an extra few hours of FIFA! :D
 
Jimmy Enslashay
I'm actually going to +rep Giles for that, because that's something that's going to stick with me forever, and I love that kind of knowledge.
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Me, too. I also am not a morning person, and battle with the "snooze" on my phone/alarm every morning. I think GG's post made me little bit smarter(boy, do I have a long way to go :D).

Edit:
As usual. I can't rep Giles. I must be repping same people over & over!
 

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