How much sleep do you really need?

Many people say that they can get by on very little sleep and that they function best during the day after just five to six hours of sleep. Others need up to ten hours of sleep per night to be able to start the day feeling rested and full of energy.

Despite the fact that there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question ‘How much sleep do I need?’, it is clear that people can also get used to running on too little sleep, believing that they are fully rested and able to concentrate after sleeping for a short time. However, when this happens, they are no longer aware of what functioning at their peak actually looks like.

This phenomenon is often seen in people who work long days and take little time to rest. They want to use their time awake as effectively as possible, sleep less and become accustomed to this rhythm. Many people only realise that their ability to function is slowly but steadily declining when they start to get more sleep again.

There are, however, people who are actually fully rested after five hours of sleep, just as some people need their nine to ten hours of sleep at night. This is not necessarily unhealthy, as long as you feel rested and in good form during the day – even without having coffee or a nap. Medical studies have found that most adults need seven to eight hours of sleep for this. 

How much sleep we need to function at our best indeed varies from person to person. However, in the course of your busy working life, you may have become accustomed to getting a short amount of sleep that doesn’t correspond to your natural biorhythm. But how do you work out how much sleep you need?

The best way to do this is to monitor it on your next holiday or take a look back at your last holiday, when you really slept in every day. How long did you sleep each night during that time? Were you up early and able to reserve the best sun lounger by the pool, or did you miss breakfast every morning?

A longer period of time without any commitments or appointments not only allows you to determine your optimal amount of sleep, it also sheds light on your sleep chronotype. Looking at what time you naturally go to bed and when you get up again can help you to adapt your working life to your biorhythm.

On average, adults sleep seven to eight hours a night. The situation is quite different for children, because the younger a person is, the more sleep they need. While newborns sleep for up to 17 out of 24 hours, toddlers often only need 11 to 14 hours of sleep and can get by with just a single nap during the day. They continue to need about an hour more of sleep than adults until they become teenagers.

Older people, on the other hand, often sleep about an hour less – this is due to physical symptoms such as an increased urge to urinate at night, but also to sleep cycles, which become shorter with age. Deep sleep, which children in particular need to process new information and learning experiences, becomes increasingly rare. From the age of 60, many older people no longer have any deep sleep phases at all.

As you can see from the example of children and older people, the optimal amount of sleep does not stay the same forever. Our natural need for sleep changes numerous times over the course of our lifetime, but it can also change over just one year. For example, most people tend to need less sleep in summer – the longer days ensure that less melatonin is produced in the evening, while the light also contributes to our ability to function.

In winter, on the other hand, many people tend to curl up on the sofa, take an extra nap and get tired more quickly in the dark. Whether you really need a little extra sleep in winter of course also varies from person to person – but if you start to feel like you could use some more time hitting the hay, it is perfectly fine to do so.

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