'How many hours do you sleep?' poll discussion

Former_MSE_Penelope

Poll started 21 June 2011, click here to vote

How many hours do you sleep?

It's one of the most MoneySaving things you can do (unless it's in a five star hotel) and it's meant to aid productivity, yet how many hours' sleep do you typically get (if you work, then on a work day)?

Tick the answer that applies to you

I’m a man

Less than 4 hours
4 or 5 hours
6 hours
7 hours
8 hours
9 hours
10 hours
11+ hours


I’m a woman

Less than 4 hours
4 or 5 hours
6 hours
7 hours
8 hours
9 hours
10 hours
11+ hours

Dibblersan_3

I am guessing that the question relates to per night and not per week. Does this include the necessary power nap required because you don't sleep properly at night?

C- for poorly worded question.

Dibblersan (aka Smug know it all)

Baileys_Babe

Does this refer to uninterrupted or total of hours sleep altogether a night? or the total of hours spent in bed in 24 hours?

As my answers would be very different.

PM1

It would have been interesting to see if it was age related. Now that I am nearly retired, I get more sleep than I used to.

Cricri

Dibblersan wrote: »

I am guessing that the question relates to per night and not per week.

DUh! What do you think? Choices are from 4 to 11 hours.

Does this include the necessary power nap required because you don't sleep properly at night?

If you didn't sleep properly at night, how would you know how many hours you really slept? And if you can't, does it matter if you can add a nap time to this unknown number? In which case, what you suggest would be "time spent in bed". C- for poorly worded question.

fannyadams

I need different sleep at different times of the year.
NEED 10 hours minimum in winter to function within normal parameters but can just about manage with 8 in summer.

but <insert your deity name here> help you if you wake me before I have to - ask my neighbour about her dog waking me up by howling at 5am - I make no apology. oh and if you're reading this neighbour...YES next time I will put your door in.:mad:

stevemcol

Bed by 11ish, up at 7ish, most weekdays. Never have to set my alarm so I think that's my natural rythm.

minerva_windsong

Normally about seven to eight hours - I aim for eight but can cope on six. I am a natural morning person though and hate having lie-ins, I always feel like I should be doing something even if it's just reading my book.

UnluckyT

About 8 or 9, depending.
aim for 8 when working, slightly more on my days off, but find it hard to 'lay in' so to speak unless i am actually sleeping. prefer to be doing something too rather than lounging in bed unless im really poorly.
i know what you mean fanny adams, one of my neighburs is noisy (i live in a maisenette block of 4 flats) they seem fo get up and do stuff early like shopping and are really heavy footed so i hear them stomping up and down stairs, when they inconsiderealtly slam the hall and their front door, throwing/dropping the recyling and boxes on the floor on rubbish day, when they clean what they feel is thier part of the hallway and so on.

psdie

Generally about 8 for me (and my partner) - feel zonked if any less, assuming a "normal length" day. I read a study on sleep patterns, which concluded with a rule of thumb: you need 1 hour's sleep for every 2 hours you've been awake for.

So if you're up for 16 hours (say 7:30am till 11:30pm), you need 8 hours' sleep. OK, so that doesn't tell us anything new: but if you're up for 36 hours (as I sometimes am to meet a deadline), you need ~18 hours' sleep to recover properly-! And conversely, you'd only need ~4 hours' sleep if you've only been up for ~8 hours.

The 18 hours might sound far-fetched - but that matches roughly what I'll sleep for if I pull a 36 hour stint. ~8 hours is about right for the ~16 hours that employed folk are usually up for. And it's true that if you've not been awake as long as usual, you'll find it difficult to sleep for your full 7-8.

The other interesting element is the roll-over effect - which we all know so well! Miss out on enough sleep one night, and you'll need more sleep the next. Fail to get that, and it'll really hit you the next day - your body definitely "remembers" that it's owed catch-up sleep! I sometimes try to get away with ~8 hours after a 24+ hour stint .. and am so tired I might as well go back to bed

All the above sounds like common sense - if you're awake for longer, you need to sleep for longer to recover. Yet people often seem to think the amount of sleep they need is a fixed, absolute quantity. Nope!

scarlet55

i usually only sleep for about 6 hours...sometimes less.....the longer i sleep, the more tired i feel...weird...