Is Six Hours of Sleep Enough?

Just because we don’t have evidence that there is a growing epidemic of sleep deprivation, doesn't necessarily mean we are getting enough sleep. How many hours of sleep do we need?

Here are some other videos on sleep:

Thanks for watching. I hope you’ll join in the evidence-based nutrition revolution!
-Michael Greger, MD FACLM

[happyfreeky]

Yes. 6-6.5 hr/night has been enough for me since my late teens. More or less, and I’m groggy. But sustained less made me sick.

[wadepatton]

In the heat of Summer I prefer five hours at night and two hours in the afternoon. But this requires AC and also the freedom to choose one's own hours of activity. 5am-10 is good to beat the heat outdoors, get the nap and do afternoon stuff, then back outside at 4-dark and sleep a short night, start near daylight the next day.

[samiryan]

I aim for 8 hours but if I got 7 will be acceptable, sleeping 6 hours is a mood disaster to me

[sophiemandese]

I'm so glad that there's no direct mechanism for longer sleep causing lower lifespans because I sleep 9-10 hours most nights and if I sleep less than that I have rebounds of 11-14 hours. I was worried that I was oversleeping and hurting my body somehow but at the same time I'm guessing it's good to let your body sleep as long as it wants to? Because my body REALLY wants it's 9+ hours lol

[KJSvitko]

Sleep trackers like the Apple Watch or the Oura Ring do a good job of tracking sleep duration and sleep levels.
It would be interesting to get a hold of their data and see how it compares with reported data. Reported data is less reliable.

[ineedbigdrink]

Thank you for making this video, I have kinda been killing myself slowly by sleeping 5-6 hours a night for the past year with 8-10 hrs on weekends. The cognitive impairment is very noticeable, weight gain is faster, and general mood is affected. There are periods of the day where it is a challenge to stay awake and closing my eyes for more than a few seconds may induce sleep. This obviously makes driving more dangerous but thankfully I haven’t had any accidents. The longer you go with improper sleep the harder it is to set a regular sleep schedule as you feel like you want more time to do things because the time you already have feels less enjoyable. But I know I have to face it and this video helped give me the confidence to put my foot down and turn this around before I develop any severe complications. Eating well has kept me from impairing my health too much but sleep is equally if not more important. Learn from my inadvertent experiment and get those extra hours of sleep if you feel like you need them!

[AndrewPawley]

May 17 2023, the channel now has 964K subscribers. Adding about 2K a week recently. Impressive!

[MultiMyNickName]

Yes, it is. What people fail to factor in I think is sleep quality and lifestyle, Most people, also me once, cant sleep well. They struggle to switch their minds off, they are restless sleepers and take time to get to sleep. Also most people have elevated stress levels from work and the business of life. The reality is, since I started mediation a few years back, it became impossible to sleep more than 6 hours. And no there are no long term side effects, I wake before my alarm every single day, I train in the mornings at 8:30, I work a full day every day in an active job and im full of energy until around 12am at night when I get tired. I sleep till 6am and the same again. Understand that I train very hard, work constantly, have very high energy and output levels and have done for a long time, but my body does not sleep longer than 6 hours. When I wake I KNOW I am done, I am ready to get up, I dont have to drag myself out of bed because I know I wont be able to sleep again because im fully rested. My suggestion is that most studies which sample normal people are not factoring in the standard stressed lifestyle of modern society. Its showing most people need 8 hours sleep almost certainly because general social stress levels from work and life degrade the actual quality time spent in deep sleep. The truth of sleep is we dont even sleep 6 hours, we sleep in 1-2 hour cycles when we enter deep sleep and come out of it, so the body is always waking during the night. The reality is this, I dont and cant sleep 8 hours, cant do it no matter what. I sleep very quickly when I goto bed, 10-20 minutes ill be asleep max and then I will wake around 5:30-6-30 generally. Thats me done, I will goto the gym at 8:30, work during the day and ill have full energy until around 12am. Its consistent and stable and thats literally how my body is. So, its definitely not required to have 8 hours at all.

[subs]

Seven hours of sleep is a minimum, not ideal. Nine seems impossible under normal circumstances, unless one is healing something.

My problem is actually sleeping while in bed, without waking up every 2 to 3 hours or getting up to pee one or more times per night. And of course falling back asleep once woken up.

[ldjt]

Do the 7 hours of sleep have to be together, all in one go, to be effective? What if I have broken up sleep for a combined total of 7 hours...is that just as good? Thanks.

[JosephNJ]

How do you know you're not getting enough sleep? You need an alarm to wake.

[wildrice]

My body started only needing about six hours sometime in my mid-20's. I can't sleep longer if I wanted to, and also don't feel any lack of energy or alertness. It's one of those things where I'm not going to try to fight my body to make some studies happy, I will just listen to it.

[massiveattackdrop]

What about sleeping during the day like siesta?

[miraiedits]

To think they tortured animals to death by keeping them awake :( What kind of monster is capable of doing such a thing :(

[rayarjomand]

I guess age (teenagers needing more sleep because they are growing) and weight (the heavier a person is requires more sleep to recover from carrying the extra weight) have the most influence on # of Hours sleeping.

[byusaranicole]

I hope so, cuz that's all I ever get.... 😬 Edit: that's not good. I checked my fitbit and my average is like 5.5 hours... 😮‍💨

[SittingKittyColorado]

I have to wonder if there are sleep cycles based on time of year.

We have food cycles. I tend to eat heartier (more starches) in the cooler months and have more desire for green and fresh in the warmer months.

I would imagine that in summer, based on more light duration people would require less sleep in part because of productivity of prepping for cooler months.

Granted we live in a different world where our work is different and more consistent in a good majority of employment but that's derived from a technology change.

In agricultural professions, the shift in productive hours hasn't changed much.

Just a thought.

[consumedbyfire]

I am getting 3-5 hours of sleep Monday through Thursday and weekends I sleep 8 or 9 hours a night. 7 to 9 hours is ideal for me. Below 5 hours is pretty miserable

[RechtmanDon]

I'd been set on 6 hours per day as a night person (go to sleep at 2 or 3 am and wake up at 8 or 9 am. After this vid, I'm switching to a 7 hour goal. I'll still do the night owl stuff, but will see if the additional hour makes a difference...

[JosephNJ]

"If you need more than 6 hours of sleep a night, sleep faster, " Arnold Swarchenegger