LogFAQs > #974828291

Zareth posted...

Remember when Zeus said humans don't need more than 6 hours a night

That's not technically wrong, depending on what age you're talking about.

The amount of sleep humans need on average changes over the years. As you get older, you need less sleep. Once you're past 60 or so, you could probably get by on 6 hours worth of sleep and be perfectly fine. Or at least some people could.

The numbers are complicated because different people have different biology (so one person might do fine with less sleep than someone else their same age), and because the amount of REM versus non-REM sleep you're getting also changes the dynamic - if you get 8 hours of sleep every night but it's shallow sleep that never reaches a deeper state, you're going to feel more exhausted and disoriented than someone who is only sleeping 6 hours but has the perfect balance of stages (incidentally, this is part of why passing out from alcohol doesn't really count as restful sleep even if you sleep for a full night). Things like sleep apnea can complicate that even more, as it can keep you from reaching deeper levels of sleep.

It's also worth noting that most modern studies imply that more than 8 hours is actually worse for adults than not getting enough sleep. It puts less stress on the body to get not enough sleep than getting too much sleep does.

It's also worth remembering that you can't "catch up" on sleep. If you only sleep 6 hours a night during the week but then sleep 12 hours on weekends, you're not balancing things out, you're making things much worse for yourself.