“I don’t know when I last slept four straight hours!”
This woeful announcement was made by a colleague recently, in the middle of an office party. And the statement triggered a hot discussion on who sleeps how much. I was quite surprised to hear some of my colleagues claim quite ‘unworriedly’ that they slept not more than four hours or max five hours! I was surprised because we have been reading and hearing for years now that 6 to 8 hours of sleep is so so important for good health!
But these friends of mine seem in pretty good health and spirits all the time. So, aren’t they sleep deprived? Or those four hours adequate for them?
Often there has been a debate on how many hours of sleep does one need. Indeed, how much is enough? Four or five hours good enough?
This question led me to do some reading up and I read somewhere that according to research, sleep should be according to one’s physical needs. If your body feels good after four hours of sleep, then sleep four hours. If your body feels good only after eight hours of sleep, then sleep eight hours. So, it is the body that is the indicator, the alarm bell.
Basically, the amount of required sleep varies from person to person. Some can go through the day happily on just a few hours’ slumber and others need 10 hours of sound sleep. But it is necessary to get good sleep. The body needs it to stay fit and the mind needs it to stay alert.
My body needs six hours of sound sleep and the day I don’t get it, I am feeling irritable and generally lethargic. And two days in a row of little sleep means I go through the day like a zombie. I can see my productivity level go down and I end up knocking off a couple of hours of sleep in the evening which leads to more sleeplessness in the night. And so the cycle continues for a few days till the weekend drops by. Then I get the chance to get my biological clock ticking in rhythm again.
But this story will vary from person to person. So, what’s your story on how many hours of sleep you need?