How Many Hours Sleep Is Good For Us?

Every day I sleep about 6-6.5 hours. I am not sure this is enough. I never feel tired after that much sleep. My spouse is always complaining that I am not getting enough sleep.

So what you think how many hours sleep is good for everyone?

Here are some contradacting studies:

Study a- Less than 8 hours Sleep is good-

A recent study done by the University of California and the shocking finding of it: "People who sleep 8 hours or more have a 50% higher mortality (death) rate than people who sleep less." Yes, it's true that such a study was carried out; however, does this mean that sleeping longer will create a higher chance of death and disease for you?

No. There's no solid proof for that, but as you read about this study in I sent you from our Powerful Sleep eBook, you might have realized the connection between less sleep, your daily energy levels, and the strength of your immune system.

As you might notice, it's during deep sleep that your body undergoes major physiological changes to repair your muscles, power up your immune system and replenish your energy.

The question really isn't "how long should I sleep?" The question really is...

"How can I optimize my sleep system to gain POWERFUL and QUALITY sleep?"

Sleep can be categorize into two cycles "Light Sleep" and "Deep Sleep"

During our first 3-4 hours of our sleep that we experience the longest period of Stage 3 and Stage 4 sleep. Stage 3 and Stage 4 Sleep is also commonly termed "deep sleep."

It's during deep sleep that we experience very low brain waves called Theta and Delta brain waves.

Our blood vessels dilate and all the blood that is usually stored in our organs throughout the day moves into our muscles to nourish and repair them.

Our immune system also activates during deep sleep to fight disease. This is why people tend to sleep longer when they're sick.

When you don't take proper care of your inner sleeping system, you're usually at risk of "poor sleep." Poor sleep happens for a variety of reasons which I outline in the Powerful Sleep book, but the main "symptom" is the inability or the difficulty of obtaining proper amounts of "deep sleep."

Study b-More sleep is Good for our body:

Sleeping yourself to good health: those people who can clock up seven hours of shut-eye a night can slash the risk of health problems

Long-term studies show that those who drop down to five hours or fewer face a 70 per cent extra risk of dying from all causes.

They also face twice the risk of death from a cardiovascular problem.

However, getting more than seven hours can also be a risk, according to the study by the University of Warwick and University College London.

Those who slept for eight hours or more a night were more than twice as likely to die as those who had not changed their habits.

The study looked at how sleep patterns affected death rates among 10,308 subjects, mainly white-collar civil servants.

Researchers examined data for 1985-8 and for those still alive in 1992-3.

Once adjustments were made for factors such as age, smoking and illness, the study was able to isolate the effect of changes in sleep patterns.

The average night's sleep is seven hours but around a third of adults in Britain regularly sleep five hours or fewer a night.

Professor Francesco Cappuccio, of the University of Warwick medical school, said: "Fewer hours of sleep and greater levels of sleep disturbance have become widespread in industrialised societies.

"This change, largely the result of sleep curtailment to create more time for leisure and shiftwork, has meant that reports of fatigue, tiredness and excessive daytime sleepiness are more common. Sleep represents the daily process of physiological restitution and recovery, and lack of sleep has far-reaching effects.

"Our findings indicate that consistently sleeping around seven hours per night is optimal for health."

He said insufficient sleep was a risk factor in weight gain, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

But it is unclear how sleeping too long could cause ill-health, he added, although possible causes included depression and low socio-economic status.

Last week, researchers showed that children who did not get enough sleep were more likely to become obese as adults

MYTHS about Sleep- Depriving You of Your Life Energy

TRUTH: Sleeping Longer ROBS You of Energy and Damages your Sleeping System.

There are several reasons why sleeping longer damages your sleep system. What most people don't know is that there is a very important element of your inner sleep clock which is prior wakefulness. When you sleep longer you limit your prior wakefulness which puts stress on a number of other factors such us your melatonin hormone levels, your exposure to sunlight, and your body temperature rhythm

MYTH #2) you need to "Catch Up on Sleep" if you missed some before.

TRUTH: Unless you go on a huge sleep deprivation marathon, you do not need to "catch up on sleep".

MYTH #3) "I feel so low on energy, I Must Get More Sleep"

TRUTH: More Sleep DOES NOT Provide you with more Energy! You don't need MORE sleep, you need QUALITY sleep.

Typical Sleep Needs

Infants

About 16 hours per day of sleep

Babies and toddlers

From 6 months to 3 years: between 10 and 14 hours per day. Infants and young children generally get their sleep from a combination of nighttime sleep and naps.

Children

Ages 3 to 6: between 10 and 12 hours of sleep

Ages 6 to 9: about 10 hours of sleep

Ages 9 to 12: about 9 hours of sleep

Teenagers

About 9 hours of sleep per night. Teens have trouble getting enough sleep not only because of their busy schedules, but also because they are biologically programmed to want to stay up later and sleep later in the morning, which usually doesn't mesh with school schedules.

Adults

For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep.

Older adults

Older adults are also thought to need 7-8 hours of sleep. However, this sleep may be for shorter time spans, is lighter than a younger adult's, and may include a nap during the day. See Sleep & Aging for more detailed information.

Pregnant women

During pregnancy, women may need a few more hours of sleep per night, or find that they need small catnaps during the day

Source: PowerfulSleep.com and Study by the University of Warwick and University College London.

Interesting Facts about sleep

Here are some nice facts about sleep we did not know or tired to think about:

• Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour accessibility of the internet.
• The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.
• Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep.

• REM sleep occurs in bursts totalling about 2 hours a night, usually beginning about 90 minutes after falling asleep.
• Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%.
• A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year
• It's impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it.
• One of the best predictors of insomnia later in life is the development of bad habits from having sleep disturbed by young children.
• The continuous brain recordings that led to the discovery of REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep were not done until 1953, partly because the scientists involved were concerned about wasting paper.
• REM sleep occurs in bursts totalling about 2 hours a night, usually beginning about 90 minutes after falling asleep.
• Dreams, once thought to occur only during REM sleep, also occur (but to a lesser extent) in non-REM sleep phases. It's possible there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually dreamless.
• REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams are repetitive and thought-like, with little imagery - obsessively returning to a suspicion you left your mobile phone somewhere, for example.
• Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific movements in dreams, suggesting at least part of the dreaming process is analogous to watching a film
• No-one knows for sure if other species dream but some do have sleep cycles similar to humans.
• Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. Others reckon we dream about things worth forgetting - to eliminate overlapping memories that would otherwise clog up our brains.
• Dreams may not serve any purpose at all but be merely a meaningless by-product of two evolutionary adaptations - sleep and consciousness.
• REM sleep may help developing brains mature. Premature babies have 75 per cent REM sleep, 10 per cent more than full-term bubs. Similarly, a newborn kitten puppy rat or hamster experiences only REM sleep, while a newborn guinea pig (which is much more developed at birth) has almost no REM sleep at all.
• The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role.
• Exposure to noise at night can suppress immune function even if the sleeper doesn’t wake. Unfamiliar noise, and noise during the first and last two hours of sleep, has the greatest disruptive effect on the sleep cycle.
• The "natural alarm clock" which enables some people to wake up more or less when they want to is caused by a burst of the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin. Researchers say this reflects an unconscious anticipation of the stress of waking up.
• Some sleeping tablets, such as barbiturates suppress REM sleep, which can be harmful over a long period.
• In insomnia following bereavement, sleeping pills can disrupt grieving.
• Tiny luminous rays from a digital alarm clock can be enough to disrupt the sleep cycle even if you do not fully wake. The light turns off a "neural switch" in the brain, causing levels of a key sleep chemical to decline within minutes.
• To drop off we must cool off; body temperature and the brain's sleep-wake cycle are closely linked. That's why hot summer nights can cause a restless sleep. The blood flow mechanism that transfers core body heat to the skin works best between 18 and 30 degrees. But later in life, the comfort zone shrinks to between 23 and 25 degrees - one reason why older people have more sleep disorders.
• A night on the grog will help you get to sleep but it will be a light slumber and you won't dream much.
• After five nights of partial sleep deprivation, three drinks will have the same effect on your body as six would when you've slept enough.
• Humans sleep on average around three hours less than other primates like chimps, rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and baboons, all of whom sleep for 10 hours.
• Ducks at risk of attack by predators are able to balance the need for sleep and survival, keeping one half of the brain awake while the other slips into sleep mode.
• Snoring occurs only in non-REM sleep
• Teenagers need as much sleep as small children (about 10 hrs) while those over 65 needs the least of all (about six hours). For the average adult aged 25-55, eight hours is considered optimal
• Some studies suggest women need up to an hour's extra sleep a night compared to men, and not getting it may be one reason women are much more susceptible to depression than men.
• Feeling tired can feel normal after a short time. Those deliberately deprived of sleep for research initially noticed greatly the effects on their alertness, mood and physical performance, but the awareness dropped off after the first few days.
• Diaries from the pre-electric-light-globe Victorian era show adults slept nine to 10 hours a night with periods of rest changing with the seasons in line with sunrise and sunsets.
• As a group, 18 to 24 year-olds deprived of sleep suffer more from impaired performance than older adults.
• Before Thomas Edison's invention of the light bulb, people slept an average of 10 hours a night; today Americans average 6.9 hours of sleep on weeknights and 7.5 hours per night on weekends
• The extra-hour of sleep received when clocks are put back at the start of daylight in Canada has been found to coincide with a fall in the number of road accidents.