how many hours of sleep do you need?

[eternalworm2008]

i find myself functioning well enough on only 4 hours of sleep, i dont do anything particularly demanding, i barely do anything at school, i spend most of time there trying to distract myself from boredom by drawing, walking around, or learning how to program. its the middle of the night as i type this, i dont plan to get much sleep.

[kakworm]

before i say anything, dont be like me folks.. LOL

I can function okay-ish at literally 1 hour or NONE of sleep, ive pulled all nighters before or near all nighters. played pokemon tcg with an hour of sleep.

im a night owl and insomniac so i never expect much sleepy anyway, its 3am as i type this lol

[grubbyfox]

8-9 hours. I usually wake up 3-4 times minimum through the night, often with nightmares and such, so I sometimes wake up with a racing pulse, or in sweat, or like just exhausted/scared/sad/angry etc. Then I need to be able to calm down again to sleep.


In my 20s and early 30s I worked night shift some years, I've pulled all nighters to try and get back on track from night shifts. A few times I did work that required me to be awake for like 28+ hours. And sometimes in my teens/early 20s I would pull all nighters just partying or gaming etc.

Even if you feel fine at the moment, it can catch up to you. Night shifts especially caught up with me and has deteriorated my health.

[thefanciestpigeon]

normally I need ~7-7.5 hours of sleep. I wake up naturally after that and can't go back to sleep unless I am really really exhausted from something.

I used to think I sometimes only needed 1-3 hours of sleep but actually I was having manic episodes.

in the post-manic-episode-crash I usually sleep for like 10 hours and still struggle to stay awake all day.

before bipolar I got like 9 hours of sleep and my sleep was very regular. my whole teenage years were spent going to sleep at 10 pm and waking up around 6-7. I was pretty strict about it. I wasn't a very rebellious teen and I am a bit neurotic about following rules and so I was very committed to getting enough sleep at the right times.then in my late teens the bipolar hit and I have not recovered yet. it's strange how one bad month seems to be able to undo years of a habit, but years of trying to fix it can't make a dent. 

lately, I get like 5-6 hours of sleep many days unfortunately because I'm an extreme night owl and can't get to bed until 4 am

my boyfriend needs like 13 hours of sleep to feel rested. I like when I get to wake up before him and get to work on stuff at the desk while he is still asleep.

[fablefound]

when i was younger, i had a lot of sleep-related issues. like, a LOT. one of my earliest memories is celebrating at the wee age of five that i'd fallen asleep at a reasonable hour and not woken up until morning. even as late as senior year in high school, sometimes i'd just... not sleep. i'd lay in bed and not sleep. and of course, my teens were spent way up late calling with friends and such.

all of that has caught up with me now. i generally get between 6 and 8 hours of sleep, but i'd say that 7 or 8 is needed for me to be totally functional. i also have a lot of trouble getting out of bed in the morning, even when i am well-rested--like, had to get professional help for it. idk if one of my various disorders is to blame, or the meds i'm on for one of said disorders, but it's been a real pain to deal with 

it's almost 1am here on the west coast. i am wishing i slept a while ago, but i got very fixated on downloading beatmaps for stepmania... so i'm just puttering away at that and watching youtube. probably gonna regret it in the morning, especially because i have work...

[BlazingCobaltX]

I've been chronically tired for most of my life. Episodes of good sleep and insomnia alternate constantly. In my teenage years I was able to sleep 10 hours, but I would still awaken rather fatigued. Right now, if I am able to sleep properly, 7.5 hours is the bare minimum for me to feel fine and 8.5 is preferred. On nights with insomnia I am happy to catch anything above 5 hours of continuous sleep.

[Corrupted Unicorn]

I need to sleep like a baby, I usually run on around 7 hours but 8-10 is best for me  Don't neglect sleep! It helps clear out the toxins created during the day by your brain. Again I'm not speaking on very scientific terms, but try to look it up, it's true! Sleep is the backbone of a healthy life 

[larvapuppy]

I have a deviated septum which means I don't breathe well when I sleep, so I can easily sleep for 12 hours without waking up. That being said, I can usually function on around 6 hours without being too uncomfortable. Any less than that and I usually feel like a truck hit me. However, apparently I hate myself and will often stay up way too late anyways and ruin the next day for myself... 

[pepper]

(tw: mentions of substance abuse)

I used to get around 4 hours of sleep a night for around 10-15 years, from highschool on. In my 20s I abused several substances (3 years sober  ), one of which being alcohol.

I would get about 4-5 hours a night of terrible alcohol-influenced sleep and thought I was functioning ok, but of course I was doing a lot of damage to my body. 3 years sober and 2 years at a job that requires me to wake up at 6 am and work 12 hour shifts, I have successfully adjusted my sleep to 7-8 hours a night when I'm working, and if I sleep without an alarm I'll wake up naturally after 9 hours (if my cat doesn't wake me up sooner  )

I'm still working off accumulated sleep debt from that decade-plus of only getting 4-5 hours of terrible sleep every night.

Moral of the story: often you may feel fine in the moment getting only 4 hours a night, but it is building up in your body and it will show up as you get older as sleep debt (fatigue, not feeling rested), and sleep debt takes years to work off. You do you, but 4 hours a night, in my experience, ain't it 

[MrsMoe]

It fluctuates between me needing seven to ten hours of sleep usually. But on some occasions, I can end up sleeping for twelve to fifteen hours. Usually that happens when I've gone several days with little sleep or something incredibly stressful or upsetting happened to me the day before.

[Koltin]

I aim for 7 on work days  11ish pm-6am
play fast and loose otherwise.

[littlelum]

On the night before work, I aim for 8 hours, ideally 9PM-5AM. On days off I tend to sleep in until 8AM, and stay in bed until 9AM. I am almost always tired around mid-day, right after I get off of work, or a few hours later. I usually take a nap against my will, in order to maintain my sanity.

[Sam]

I love sleeping, if I could I would sleep for at least 20 hours per day but unfortanetly I also love having free time in the night so a lot of the time I end up going to sleep later than I would want to (11 p.m. or 12 a.m. which I know isn't really that late but I always get really tired during that time window with almost no exceptions) which sucks during school days where I sleep for 6 hours but is amazing on weekends and vacation where I can wake up at 10 a.m. and sleep for 10 hours straight with nobody to bother me 

[azalea]

i can make do with about 4-5 hours of sleep. i can survive on less, but it wouldn't be ideal and i'd feel like crap.

[mini]

don't want to be a party pooper but everyone saying that they only need four or five hours is kinda wrong; sleep is a big factor in developing neurodegenerative diseases later in life* and also sleeping that little impacts your cognition instantly so y'all should definitely try getting 7-8 hours a day :3

*i'm not an expert in medicine but I'm fairly sure this is fairly well supported

Moral of the story: often you may feel fine in the moment getting only 4 hours a night, but it is building up in your body and it will show up as you get older as sleep debt (fatigue, not feeling rested), and sleep debt takes years to work off. You do you, but 4 hours a night, in my experience, ain't it 

+1, used to sleep poorly when I was an student and I felt like shit constantly even though I thought I was used to it, fixing my sleep is probably one of the best things I have ever done for myself. It basically helps with everything.