How Much Sleep Do We Really Need? The first thing experts will tell you about how many hours of
sleep we need is that there is no “magic number.” The amount of
sleep that is ideal varies for every individual, and is influenced by
factors such as age, genetics, overall health, how much exercise a
person gets, and many others. While you may be at your absolute best
sleeping seven hours a night, someone else may clearly need nine
hours to have a happy, productive life.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, some research has
found that long sleep durations (nine hours or more) are also
associated with increased morbidity (illness, accidents) and even
mortality (death.) This research also found that variables such as
depression were significantly associated with long sleep.
Since there is such a wide variety of opinions from countless
studies and experts, and since the amount of sleep needed varies from
person to person, I’m not going to take a scientific approach here.
Instead, I’m going to share my own real-world results, from personal
experience and experimentation, some of which may be somewhat
controversial.
