Some of us feel well-rested after a solid eight hours of sleep. For others, closer to nine feels best. For others still, a little less will do. How much sleep we prefer to get is highly subjective — but how much sleep we need is a bit more concrete.
After web analytics showed the vast popularity of the How Much Sleep Do We Really Need? feature of the National Sleep Foundation’s (NSF) website, a panel of experts set about to reassure that the information provided there was the most accurate and up to date.
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Or, try something a little less elaborate. “If you could select your bedtime and wake time, what would it be?” Hirshkowitz asked. I said 11:30 p.m. and 8 a.m. “Now, if that is going to be your set bedtime forever, forevermore, you will never be able to get one extra minute, you will always have exactly that amount of sleep — do you want to adjust what you said?” Never one extra minute?! I gave myself an extra hour — and most people adjust when faced with this exercise, he said. Your optimal sleep duration is probably somewhere in between those two ranges.
