Is seven hours enough to sleep?

In this article, Chris Gayomali (Chris Gayomali), tells about how many hours we have to sleep - but take it with a bit of skepticism. We want to remind you that the common goal of all articles is to share the author’s experience of how to become more successful and effective everywhere: in your personal life, relationships with friends, yourself, and of course at work (whatever you do)!

You are probably not getting enough sleep, but not as much as you think.
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Most sleep experts would say that the optimal amount of sleep is from 7 to 9 hours to recover and be productive the next day. However, the new Wall Street Journal report states that researchers are close to establishing a magic number - and this is not 9 hours, and not even 8, as previously thought.

According to the edition, it is 7 hours of sleep.

Of course, all the standard warnings work here, and these discoveries should not be taken literally. However, the results are interesting - especially if you are one of those who struggle with lethargy throughout the day.

“Those who sleep for seven hours have the lowest mortality and morbidity rates,” said Sean Youngsted, a professor at the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, at the University of Arizona in Phoenix. "8 hours or more consistently indicated a health hazard."

The report cites one study published in 2002, which used data from 1.1 million people obtained during the 6-year period of cancer research. The researchers found that people who slept between 6.5 and 7.4 hours at night generally had a lower mortality rate than those who slept less or more. “Previous sleep studies have shown that both short and long-term sleep were associated with higher mortality rates,” said Dr. Daniel F. Kripke in 2002. “However, these studies were not serious enough to distinguish between 7 and 8 hours of sleep. "

Some researchers warn against studies that warn about the dangers of prolonged sleep. According to the Wall Street Journal, “the disease can make a person sleep more or spend more time in bed,” which refutes the results of the link between higher mortality and longer sleep.

This theory of 7 hours actually assumes that all people need the same amount of sleep in order to recover and be ready to meet the new day.

This is not true.

The National Sleep Fund says that sleep needs are individual and depend on a number of different factors:

“Not only different age groups require different amounts of sleep, but also individual characteristics matter. Like other characteristics with which you were born, the amount of sleep needed for better functioning may differ for you and for other people of the same age and sex. While you may feel great after 7 hours of sleep, someone else may need 9 hours to have a happy, productive life. ”

Thomas Edison, for example, managed to remain very productive even after 4 hours of sleep. He was also a supporter of multiphase sleep (he even had a sofa in the laboratory), who helped him overcome creative stagnation.

A number of modern successful people also claim that they sleep only a few hours each night: Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, sleeps 4-6 hours; fashion designer Tom Ford sleeps 3 hours a night; and basketball star Kobe Bryant, they say, is practicing something called a “polyphasic sleep schedule”, which allows him to sleep only 3-4 hours, and this time is distributed over the course of a day.

If you want to find the optimal sleep time that you need, try the following: go on vacation. Despite the change of time zones, go to bed at a reasonable time (ideally sober) and wake up the next morning without an alarm clock. Feeling good? This will give you an approximate figure, according to which you can adjust your daily routine.

And if suddenly you wake up after 7 hours, that's great too.

PS We recommend another article on the topic - Why should I ignore some tips on saving time.

Translated by Vyacheslav Davidenko, founder of MBA Consult