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Are you getting enough sleep?
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Find out how many hours of shut-eye the pros suggest you should get.
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By Lawrence J. Epstein, M.D.
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"How much sleep do I need?" is one of the most common questions sleep specialists hear. Often there is a subtle subtext: Look, Doc, I'm really busy -- expanding my company/getting a graduate degree/building an extension on my house/raising three kids -- and I can't afford to sleep away one-third of my life. Can't I really get by on four or five hours a night?
The short answer is: No, you probably can't. But let's explore the question in a little more depth.
Short, standard, and long sleepers
Like many individual traits, such as height, intelligence, and shoe size, the need for sleep among the general population follows a simple bell curve. A few people need a little (four to six hours), a few people need a lot (nine or ten hours), and most are in the middle (seven or eight hours). Most sleep specialists believe the overwhelming majority of people need at least seven and a half hours of sleep to function at their best. That's a good goal for the average person.
Of course, you want to know your requirements, not those of the average Joe. The best way to calculate your sleep need is to listen to your body. In your experience, how much sleep does it take for you to feel fully rested? By this, I mean you
• find it easy to get out of bed;
• are not sleepy during the daytime;
• don't have problems concentrating; and
• are generally in a good mood.
Conversely, take a minute to think about how much sleep is not enough for you. The key here is daytime drowsiness. On days when you feel sleepy during the day, how much sleep did you typically get the night before? Along with feeling drowsy in the daytime, you're probably sleep deprived if you
• struggle to get out of bed;
• are frequently irritable;
• have difficulty concentrating; or
• nod off or come close to nodding off after lunch or dinner, at the movies, watching television, or while driving.
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 | Excerpted from The Harvard Medical School Guide to a Good Night's Sleep by Lawrence J. Epstein, M.D., with Steven Mardon. Excerpted by permission of McGraw-Hill. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. |
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