How much sleep is healthy/

[cbrons]

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They still pushing the whole 8-9 hours of sleep per night line? Or can we get by with less? What is your take? How much sleep does your average 20-30 old need?

 

[D elegans]

I think it varies by person. Sleep hygiene is probably more important than hours; that is to say staying on a sleep schedule that allows you to function well.

I go to bed roughly the same time each night and get up around the same time each morning, getting a little over 7 hours. I made the decision to get in this regimen when starting med school. In college I had no sleep hygiene and slept like crap all the time, eventually getting a script for Ambien to help me fall asleep. Now, I fall asleep easily most nights and I feel and work much better.

 

[KnuxNole]

7-8 I would say. I personally can get by with 6 on work/school days, but 7-8 is ideal for the twenty-something crowd.

 

[ArcGurren]

I'm usually okay with 7-8 hours of sleep (so i go to sleep at 10 and get up by 5 typically on most "workdays)

 

[cbrons]

Interesting. Wonder if anyone knows what the research says..

 

[KinasePro]

We were taught that 7-8 hrs is optimal. Any more or less and you're sleeping patterns become a risk factor for diabetes, HTN, etc... Here's a representative study.

 

[cbrons]

We were taught that 7-8 hrs is optimal. Any more or less and you're sleeping patterns become a risk factor for diabetes, HTN, etc... Here's a representative study.

Thanks a lot.

I think 7 hours is probably the most I can hope for these days.

 

[Bancrofti]

Interesting. Wonder if anyone knows what the research says..

I remember reading an article a while ago on it attempting to correlate average hours of sleep to life span.

Said for kids to be healthy they need up to 9 hours of sleep.
Once you hit your 20s, 7 hours is adequate for the average person.
Adults who averaged much less than that (~5 hours) tended to die earlier than their 7 hour counterparts. The surprising finding of the article was that people who slept around 9 hours per day also had a lower life expectancy than those who slept for 7 hours on average.

I probably read this between 2-4 years ago. Don't know how valid it could be though. What if the people who slept 9 hours per day were just lazy in general and as such may have been overweight and susceptible to the health risks associated with obesity, which lower life expectancy.

 

[notbobtrustme]

6 hours is what I need to function with no problems for the day. If I get less than that, I have a dull headache that follows me until the afternoon.

I think the general consensus is that you need between 6 and 8 hours a day.

 

[surftheiop]

While 6-8 seems to be the consensus for being healthy, I remember learning in psychology that in order to be at your maximum cognitive function you need to have slept atleast 8.5 hours a night for a week straight. I remember there being a lot of really interesting studies related to this sort of thing but Im too lazy to look them up now

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

6 hours is what I need to function with no problems for the day. If I get less than that, I have a dull headache that follows me until the afternoon.

I think the general consensus is that you need between 6 and 8 hours a day.

Yeah if I only get 6 I tend to need to take a small nap midafternoon to not feel totally messed up by the evening.

 

[479260]

I've been ok with 6-7 hours/night.

 

[Michael Corleon]

8 is best. 9 too much. 7 is reality.

 

[link2swim06]

I get an average of 5 hours. After awhile you get use to it.

 

[sibitrum]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sleep-t.html

So, for most of us, eight hours of sleep is excellent and six hours is no good, but what about if we split the difference? What is the threshold below which cognitive function begins to flag? While Dinges’s study was under way, his colleague Gregory Belenky, then director of the division of neuroscience at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md., was running a similar study. He purposely restricted his subjects to odd numbers of sleep hours — three, five, seven and nine hours — so that together the studies would offer a fuller picture of sleep-restriction. Belenky’s nine-hour subjects performed much like Dinges’s eight-hour ones. But in the seven-hour group, their response time on the P.V.T. slowed and continued to do so for three days, before stabilizing at lower levels than when they started. Americans average 6.9 hours on weeknights, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Which means that, whether we like it or not, we are not thinking as clearly as we could be.

 

[phikapdoctor]

I get an average of 5 hours. After awhile you get use to it.

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[sindadel]

I like 8-9 hours a night, which I consistently achieved throughout medical school and residency so far. Without sleep, your learning is crappy, your memory is shot, your mood is depressed and you provide poor patient care.

 

[urbanclassic]

I like 8-9 hours a night, which I consistently achieved throughout medical school and residency so far. Without sleep, your learning is crappy, your memory is shot, your mood is depressed and you provide poor patient care.

How have you been able to do that during ms 3 and 4? What specialty are you in?

 

[diagonal]

Adults who averaged much less than that (~5 hours) tended to die earlier than their 7 hour counterparts.

But they were alive 2 more hours each day. I'll let you do the math.

Actually, I don't care. I'd sleep 20 hrs a day if I could.

 

[sindadel]

#1. I read whenever I have time when I am on duty and thus do not waste my "interstitial" time, whether I am in clinic or in the hospital

#2. If I am on call, and it is after 10 pm, I lie down whenever I am not directly required for ward duties (I always clear deck with the nurses before lying down the first time). This is true for both home and in house call.

#3. If I am not on call, I am in bed by 10, lights out by 10:30, so I can wake at 6:30. In med school, I did 11 to 7.

I am in Family Medicine, with relatively sane hours right now (8-6 and 1:7 call), but with 1:4 call coming up January to June. I have done the above with heavy call schedules and during surgery, etc. however.

 

[Bancrofti]

But they were alive 2 more hours each day. I'll let you do the math.

Actually, I don't care. I'd sleep 20 hrs a day if I could.

2 hours less every day for 30 years only saves you 2.5 years of "life." Part of that will be used sleeping anyways. The gap was larger than 2.5 from what I remember.

For all those who average 5-6 I don't know how you do it. If I lift or play a few pick-up games of basketball and get anything less than 7.5 I am struggling to keep my eyes open the next day. I guess it depends on the lifestyle.

 

[link2swim06]

2 hours less every day for 30 years only saves you 2.5 years of "life." Part of that will be used sleeping anyways. The gap was larger than 2.5 from what I remember.

For all those who average 5-6 I don't know how you do it. If I lift or play a few pick-up games of basketball and get anything less than 7.5 I am struggling to keep my eyes open the next day. I guess it depends on the lifestyle.

Its all about getting on a cycle. My body knows when its time to get up. I am too busy seeing patients and writing notes to be tired in the morning.

Anyhow I plan on sleeping much more as an attending in a few years. I'd rather bust my ass now and have it pay off for the rest of my life. I have never noticed a difference in my learning quality when I was getting 5 hrs vs 8 hrs (likely because I don't feel tired on 5 hrs of sleep).

 

[SpecterGT260]

Yeah if I only get 6 I tend to need to take a small nap midafternoon to not feel totally messed up by the evening.

They make "naps in a can" now. Several types out there. Go by misleading names like "monster" and "red bull"

I'm the same way though. My patterns aren't regular ans swing from 5-6 on weekdays to 9-10 on weekends or days off. I'll either take a power nap when it starts to catch up w me or caffeinate to oblivion to power through.

 

[CaptainSSO]

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Ah. I am not alone.

I remember in undergrad I used to get upset if I only slept 5 hours. Now I sleep 5 hours every night. Surprisingly you do adjust to it.