How much sleep do I need?

When you have trouble fitting in all your planned activities during the day, it seems like a good idea to sleep less. Who still sleeps nine hours a day in these busy times? The truth is that sleeping less has an effect on your mood, energy levels and resistance to stress. By understanding how sleep works and what you can do about chronic sleep deprivation, you can create a healthy sleep schedule.

The power of sleep

Many of us try to sleep as little as possible. There are so many things more interesting than a few extra hours of sleep. But just as nutrition and exercise are essential for optimal health, so is sleep! The quality of sleep has a direct influence on the quality of your waking life: when you sleep well you are more productive, mentally sharper, more emotionally balanced and more creative. Sleep therefore brings many benefits with little effort.

What happens in your sleep?

When you sleep, your brain is certainly not resting! While you rest, your brain stays busy, preparing you for the next day. Without enough of this ‘restorative sleep’ you will not be able to work and learn to your full potential. If you regularly sleep short, it can even lead to a mental and physical collapse.

The good news is that you don’t have to choose between health and productivity. If you sleep enough, your energy level will increase. As a result, you’re likely to get more done during the day than if you cut back on sleeping for a while. If you sleep an hour less than optimal for a longer period of time, you may not consciously be less productive. But it does have an effect on your reaction time and on your immune system: your body is less able to defend itself against viruses.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that a lack of sleep during the working week can be compensated with extra sleep on the weekends. This is only partly true. Certainly, you feel rested again during the weekend, but it is a lot more difficult to fall asleep at the right time on Sunday evening so that you can start the week fresh again.

How many hours of sleep do I need?

The average adult sleeps less than seven hours per night. In today’s fast-paced society, six to seven hours of sleep still seems fine. In reality, it’s a recipe for chronic sleep deprivation. There is a large discrepancy between the amount of sleep in which you can still function and function optimally . Just because you don’t fall asleep during the day after sleeping seven hours doesn’t mean you wouldn’t feel much better and get more done with an extra hour or two in bed.

The amount of sleep someone needs varies from person to person. That being said; the majority of healthy adults need between seven and a half and nine hours of sleep to function at their best. Children and adolescents need more (see table). The need for sleep decreases as we get older: older people need an average of seven to eight hours of sleep. Because older people often have difficulty sleeping for so long at night, it can be helpful to take another nap during the day.

The best way to find out how much sleep your body needs is to evaluate how you feel during the day. If you get enough sleep, you will feel energetic and alert during the day.

Signs and symptoms of sleep deprivation

How do you know if you don’t get enough sleep? Most signs of sleep deprivation are much more subtle than hitting your head hard on the table. When you get into the habit of sleeping little, you probably don’t remember what it feels like to be completely rested and alert. Maybe it feels normal to get sleepy when you’re in a boring meeting, you typically have an afternoon slump, or you drift off after dinner. The truth is that this is only normal with sleep deprivation.

You may suffer from insufficient sleep if you:

• Have to set an alarm to wake up on time
• Keep hitting the snooze button
• Have trouble getting up
• Becomes sleepy in warm rooms
• Feeling sleepy after a big meal
• Have difficulty concentrating while driving
• Falling asleep while watching television
• Feeling the need to get extra sleep on the weekend

While it may seem like sleeping a little less isn’t such a big deal, it still has a host of negative effects that go beyond just feeling sleepy. It reduces your coordination and reaction times. It can affect you just as much as drinking can.

The effects of sleep deprivation include:

• Lack of motivation
• More easily irritable
• Lower problem-solving ability
• Lower resistance to stress
• Weaker immune system
• Memory problems
• Weight gain
• Poorer motor skills, resulting in an increased risk of accidents

As you read, weight gain is also a possible consequence of sleep deprivation. You may have already noticed that when you have had a short sleep, you have a greater craving for foods that contain sugar. Sleep deprivation has a direct link to overeating and obesity. There are two hormones in your body that regulate the feeling of hunger. Ghrelin stimulates the feeling of hunger, and leptin sends a signal to your brain when you are full. When you don’t get the sleep you need, the amount of ghrelin in your body increases. This stimulates your feeling of hunger, causing you to eat more than normal. Your leptin levels drop, so you don’t feel full quickly. The more sleep you miss, the more your body wants to eat.

The stages of sleep

Not all sleep is equal. Sleep consists of a series of recurring stages. From deep sleep to dreamy sleep, all are crucial for the body and mind. Each stage plays a different role in preparing for the next day. The types of sleep can be roughly divided into two main categories:

• Slow sleep, also called Non-REM or NREM sleep.
• REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. Most dreams occur during this sleep.

You might think that once you get into bed, you will quickly fall into an all-night sleep. Then you wake up again in the morning. In reality, your sleep is more complicated. During the night, your sleep forms a predictable pattern, going back and forth between deep recovery sleep and more alert REM sleep, during which you dream. Together, NREM and REM sleep form a complete sleep cycle. An average cycle lasts about an hour and a half; you repeat these four to six times overnight.

The amount of time you spend in REM and NREM sleep changes as the night progresses. In the first half of your sleep you will sleep more deeply. Later in the night your REM sleep becomes longer: so you dream more at the end of the night. This also explains why people who wake up quickly often do so in the early hours.

Do you have trouble getting up when the alarm goes off?

Even if you’ve slept a whole night, it can sometimes be difficult to get up if your alarm goes off in the middle of a deep sleep. If you want to make it easier for yourself in the morning, it is advisable to wake up during a shallower phase of your sleep. There are apps available for your mobile phone that use the motion sensor to detect when you are in a less deep sleep and can adjust the alarm accordingly.

Tips to get enough sleep again

While you can’t make up for your lack of sleep in one night or a weekend, with a little effort and planning you can get enough sleep again.

• Try to get at least seven and a half hours of sleep consistently
• Keep a sleep diary. Write down what time you go to bed, when you get up, your hours of sleep and how you feel during the day. If you keep track of this, you will see that you automatically recognize your natural pattern. There are mobile phone apps available with exactly this function.
• Make sleep a priority. Just as you make time for work and other appointments, it is important that you make enough time for sleep. Put sleep at the top of your to-do list.