Minimum 8 hours of sleep – does this apply to everyone?
Is 8 hours of sleep right for everyone? Should we all sleep only this number of hours – no more and no less? Or maybe the number “8” was applied in this case artificially as the ideal number of hours to get enough sleep and it’s time to question it? Let’s try to figure out these questions.
As in most of my articles, I try to analyze everything according to my personal experience. And I can say for sure that in my experience, the ideal amount of sleep is not exactly 8 hours, but a little less.
Provided that the body is in good shape, has no existing diseases or inflammatory processes at the moment. Let me remind you that this applies to me according to my feelings.
Pay close attention to how your body feels about sleep
When I sleep a little over 7 hours, a certain internal alarm goes off and I wake up. This is my signal that it is time to get up and start preparing for the day’s activities. This awakening is very unstable, there is a great temptation to stay asleep further.
It’s best to track it on a day off, when you don’t have to go to work. If I make a relatively small effort to get out of bed after my body has given me the signal to wake up, I usually have a great day and mood. If I ignore this signal from my body, then I fall asleep and sleep on.
The next signal from the body that you need to get up will be much later – in another 3 or 4 hours. That’s why I say it’s important to catch the first moment. Because of excessive sleep, I wake up feeling more or less restored, but somehow more nervous.
Apparently, the nervous system is not recovering well, and in this case, we do not rest mentally. And sleep exists, among other things, to restore not only the physical but also the mental body.
After too many hours of sleep, I feel that I have too many stress hormones in my body, in particular, cortisol. Therefore, on this day, before doing other things, I first have to “burn off” cortisol and “level out” my hormonal levels. At a minimum, I go for a walk of at least 10 km, but mostly I go for a bike ride.
The clue came by itself
This article should have been one of the first to be written on this blog. However, for some reason I kept putting it off. And yesterday, before going to bed, I came across a video on the YouTube channel “Dr. Petryk” (a well-known channel of a qualified practitioner).
In his video, he talks about interesting research that shows that the ideal amount of sleep for a person is 7 hours. Any less and the body does not recover properly. More – the same thing, the body does not recover properly.
That is, sleeping more than you need is just as harmful as sleeping less than you need. And for some reason, I always thought that if I sleep to my heart’s content, it restores me very well and has a positive effect on my body.
Now, analyzing my own feelings over the years and the data from the video, where Dr. Petryk talks about certain long-term studies, I realize that this makes sense. Well, for me personally. I really like 7-hour sleep and in my case it has the best effect on my body and general condition. Besides, there are third-party confirmations for this.
Why should you get up when your body tells you to?
On a day when I have to go to work, I also often wake up on my own before the alarm on my phone. However, most of the time, I fall asleep and continue to sleep until the alarm wakes me up. Then it’s really hard for me to get up and it’s hard to “get moving,” and then I usually don’t have enough energy that day. I feel sleepy and exhausted.
The body signals the first rise, as a rule, after 7 hours of sleep. It’s not exactly 7 hours, but it’s about that. From now on, I will try to practice exactly 7 hours of sleep, monitor my feelings and body condition, and will describe it in one of my next articles, but once this habit is established and a long enough period has passed to draw any conclusion.
Previously, if I slept for 7 hours and got up by the alarm, I felt a little guilty because I didn’t get 8 hours of sleep, didn’t go to bed an hour earlier. This is a kind of self-programming that does not bring anything useful. Even when I was well rested and fully recovered, I was sending a signal to my brain that this was wrong sleeping hours time quantity.
And as you know, humans are capable of self-programming and self-hypnosis to a very large extent. Thoughts that are constantly repeated and pictures in your head that are constantly scrolling sooner or later become reality.
In addition, it was only now that I realized that 8 hours of sleep is definitely not for everyone. And I’m not talking about people like Einstein, Franklin Roosevelt, or Tesla, who slept much less.
What I mean here is that 8 hours of sleep may not be enough for most “ordinary” people. I’m not going to completely deny the fact that 8 hours of sleep is the ideal average for most people, but I want to question it. And in my opinion, with good reason.
The 8 hours feels like some kind of artificiality. Something in the style of a day divided into 3 parts, where every 8 hours are the basics of our life – sleep, work, time for ourselves. Perhaps this is true, but maybe the ideal proportions are slightly different? Why not try it?
There are no universal people, so it is very important to follow your own feelings. If your body gives you a signal to get up, you should accept it and wake up, not ignore it and continue sleeping, thinking it’s healthy or indulging your weaknesses.
At this point, it’s easier for people who have responsibilities to others and have to get up earlier. As a rule, over time, they develop a certain regimen and it corresponds to about 7 hours of sleep – they go to bed at 10 pm and get up around 5 am.
I think the idea of 7 hours of sleep also deserves to be at least tested. Therefore, if there are no health problems or illnesses, it’s worth putting aside laziness and trying it. But don’t forget that each of us knows ourselves best.
You should always trust your own inner feelings. Perhaps you really need 8 or 9 hours of sleep – that’s perfectly normal, too.
Disclaimer: this article does not constitute medical advice. The article contains the author’s personal opinion and personal conclusions and observations. If you have problems with sleep or are interested in other issues related to it, it is better to consult your doctor.
