How Much Sleep is Enough Sleep?

Napoleon advocated ’six hours
of sleep for a man, seven for a
woman and eight for a fool’

Recently, I intensified my exercise workout schedule.  Instead of quick walks every night, I started walk/running and putting in more miles on the treadmill.  One of the early payoffs for this was inability to sleep in, and more energy.  In fact, this morning, I woke up before the alarm clock – after a short 6 hours of shut eye.  A few months ago, getting me up after 8 hours of sleep required a big mental struggle.  Sometimes involving my wife sending in the kids to pull me out of bed.  Napoleon must be smiling right about now.

So how much sleep do we need?  An article written in 1996 by Jim Horne suggests less is more when it comes to sleep.  Much like drinking or eating too much, sleeping too much is bad as well.

"At Loughborough, we have studied people who extend their sleep for many nights, remaining in bed for 10 hours after lights-out and sleeping for as long as they wanted. They gained little and discovered distinct disadvantages – it took them longer to fall asleep, they woke up more during the night and found getting up in the morning to be no easier. Humans are designed for two sleeps a day – the main one at night and a nap in the afternoon – which explains why people in the warmer parts of the world have an afternoon siestaa, and why the rest of us are likely to be sleepy at this time. People who increase their night-time sleep find that this afternoon ‘dip’ disappears. However, a 10-minute nap at lunchtime is just as effective."

This makes sense to me.  In school, I used to negotiatie with myself.  "I can get up now after only 6 hours, because I get a break around 12 and can ‘cat-nap’ then".  My wife always wondered how I could nap for 10-15 minutes on a Saturday and that would be enough.  Well, If I were to sleep a full hour or more, I would always wake up more tired than I was when I originally lied down. Again, less is more when it comes to the effects of sleep.

But what about now?  We are adults and have to work.  Falling asleep at your desk is probably frowned upon.  However, in the workplace, you have smokers who excuse themselves several times a day for ten minute smokes.  Why can’t we excuse ourselves for one 10 minute power nap?   At least we wouldn’t return to work smelling of smoke.  Plus, the employer would likely end up with happier, more productive employees.

It’s definately something to think about.

Link: ‘How much Sleep do we need ?’.

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