You’ve probably heard the recommended amount of sleep is seven to nine hours. You’ve got a busy life so shoot for the lower end of that range. But is seven hours of sleep enough?
Below, we’ll dive into what science really says about getting seven hours of sleep. Plus, we’ll share how the can work out exactly how much sleep you need and guide you through daily habits to help you get it more easily.
“Seven hours of sleep may be enough for some people," says Dr. Chester Wu. "But many people need more sleep than this. If you’re feeling even a little bit tired throughout the day, you might need more sleep at night. Try heading to bed a little earlier over the next few days and seeing how you feel.”
Dr. Chester Wu is double board certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, and provides sleep medicine services, medication management, and psychotherapy to adults at his private sleep medicine and psychiatry practice.
Seven hours of sleep is enough for some people. But some people need less than seven hours and many people need more than seven hours. To make things more complicated, the amount of sleep you need can change from night to night.
We know that’s a non-answer. But everyone needs a different amount of sleep.
The amount of sleep you need is known as your sleep need. It’s determined by genetics, just like height and eye color, and it can look very different for each of us.
For example, we looked at 1.95 million RISE users aged 24 and up. Their sleep needs ranged from a tiny five hours to a whopping 11 hours 30 minutes. The median sleep need was eight hours, but 48% of users need eight hours of sleep or more a night.
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Scientific research has found a similar average. One worked out the sleep needs of adults aged 20 to 26. The numbers ranged from seven hours 17 minutes to nine hours 16 minutes, and the average was eight hours 25 minutes.
Sleep need is so individual that a states, “although sleep recommendations are a good tool for public health surveillance, they need to be adapted on a case-by-case basis in clinic (not a one-size-fits-all recommendation).”
The paper also says, “there is no “magic number” for the ideal duration of sleep.”
So how do you know if seven hours is enough for you? The RISE app uses a year’s worth of your phone use behavior and sleep science algorithms to work out your sleep need down to the minute.
Heads-up: You need to know about sleep efficiency. Sleep efficiency is the measure of how long you spend actually sleeping in bed. It takes into account the time it takes to fall asleep (sleep latency) and the time you’re awake during the night (sleep fragmentation).
If you spend seven hours in bed, you’re highly unlikely to be getting seven hours of sleep. So even if you do need seven hours of shut-eye, you need to consider your sleep efficiency and give yourself more time in bed to get enough sleep. We recommended adding 30 minutes to an hour on to your sleep need and spending this amount of time in bed.
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The amount of sleep you need is highly individual. Many adults need between seven and nine hours a night, but this number looks very different for each person and it can even change from day to day.
For example, you may temporarily need more sleep when:
We’ve covered more on how much sleep you need .
There are two ways to work out how much sleep you need:
The no-alarm method, also called the sleep rebound method, involves waking up without an alarm for a week — although you’d ideally keep going for two weeks to account for potentially needing to catch up on a lot of missed sleep.
During this time, note down when you fall asleep and wake up. Once you’ve caught up on sleep, you should start to get about the same amount of sleep each night. That’ll give you an idea of how much sleep you need.
Unfortunately, there are a few problems with this method:
The alternative? Let algorithms do the hard work for you. The RISE app is a sleep calculator. It tracks how much sleep you get and uses a year’s worth of your phone use data and proprietary sleep-science-based models to calculate your exact sleep need.
You can then know once and for all if seven hours of sleep is enough for you.
The amount of sleep you need changes across your lifespan. Babies, children, and teenagers need more sleep, while adults need less.
Here are the recommended hours of sleep by age according to the :
These guidelines are a great starting point, but they’re just guidelines. They’re based on self-reported data, which is often , and based on how much sleep people get, not what they need.
The guidelines may be misleading, too. It suggests older adults need less sleep than younger adults, but that may not be the case. Sleep can be when you’re older. So the data shows older adults are getting less sleep, which can be wrongly interpreted as they need less sleep.
Our own data shows RISE users over 60 need an average of eight hours 18 minutes of sleep a night. For 24-to-59-year-olds, the median sleep need is eight hours and 24 minutes — only six minutes more.
It’s a common idea that seven hours is enough sleep, even though scientific research shows many people need more than this. There are a few reasons for this misconception.
First up, the National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get seven to nine hours of sleep, so seven hours is the bottom end of those guidelines. We’re all busy people, so don’t want to “waste” more time in bed if we don’t have to. But, as you now know, these guidelines can’t be fully relied on, they’re just a starting point.
There is also some out there suggesting seven hours is the optimal sleep duration. And research like this makes for great headlines.
But not all sleep experts agree with this finding. In a , Russell Foster, director of the Sir Jules Thorn Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, cautioned that stating seven hours as the ideal amount of sleep "ignores the fact that there is considerable individual variation in sleep duration.”
He elaborated that, "how long we sleep, our preferred sleep times and how many times we wake during the night varies hugely between individuals and as we age."
Other guidelines make it clear seven hours of sleep is the minimum you should aim for. A from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society says “adults should sleep 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health.” The key phrase here is “or more.”
And sometimes more than nine hours of sleep is needed. The statement goes on to say, “Sleeping more than 9 hours per night on a regular basis may be appropriate for young adults, individuals recovering from sleep debt, and individuals with illnesses.”
Heads-up: Sleep debt is the measure of how much sleep you owe your body. If you haven’t been meeting your sleep need recently, you’ll have sleep debt. RISE can calculate how much sleep debt you have.
If you need eight hours of sleep and only get seven, you’ll be at risk of a whole host of negative impacts.
Short-term impacts include:
Long-term impacts include:
If you need eight hours of sleep and only get seven, you might think you’re not missing out on much. But that one hour of sleep can make more difference than you think.
That’s because each hour of sleep isn’t equal. We get more deep sleep in the first half of the night and more REM sleep in the second half. So if you wake up one hour earlier than your body wants you to, you could be missing out on a disproportionate chunk of REM, which is needed for creativity, , and memory formation.
You might not be getting enough sleep because of poor sleep hygiene, being out of sync with your circadian rhythm, or having a medical condition or sleep disorder.
Speak to your healthcare provider if you think a medical condition or sleep problem is stopping you from getting enough sleep. They can run tests to confirm and recommend the best course of action.
To get enough sleep, improve your sleep hygiene. Good sleep hygiene will help you fall asleep, stay asleep, and get a good night’s sleep night after night.
Here’s what good sleep hygiene looks like:
To help you perfect your sleep hygiene, RISE can tell you when to do 20+ good sleep habits at the time that’ll make them the most effective for you. This will help you get enough sleep, whatever that amount is for you.
Expert tip: The quantity of sleep you get will only be sufficient if it’s also good quality sleep. There’s no set definition for , but you ideally want to get enough unbroken, natural, healthy sleep (the kind you get from good sleep hygiene) to feel your best each day.
Seven hours may be enough sleep for some people. But many of us need more than seven hours of sleep. The amount of sleep you need is highly individual, and it can even change from day to day if you’re recovering from sleep deprivation, an illness, injury, or intense exercise.
The can give you a solid answer. RISE uses science-backed algorithms and your phone use behavior to calculate how much sleep you need down to the minute.
The app can then guide you through 20+ sleep hygiene habits to help you get this amount of sleep each night.
And getting enough sleep will lead to better days. But don’t just take our word for it — 80% of RISE users feel more energy within five days of using the app.
Seven hours of sleep is enough for some people. But many people will need more than seven hours of sleep. The amount of sleep you need is highly individual, it changes across your lifespan, and it can even change from day to day if you’re recovering from an illness, injury, or sleep deprivation.
Seven hours of sleep is healthy for some people. But many people will need more than seven hours of sleep, so only getting seven hours will be unhealthy for them. The amount of sleep you need is highly individual, it changes across your lifespan, and it can even change from day to day if you’re recovering from an illness, injury, or sleep deprivation.
Seven hours of sleep is good for some people. But many people will need more than seven hours of sleep. The amount of sleep you need is highly individual, it changes across your lifespan, and it can even change from day to day if you’re recovering from an illness, injury, or sleep deprivation.
Seven hours of sleep is bad if you need more than seven hours of sleep. Getting less sleep than you need can lead to low energy, irritability, trouble concentrating, anxiety, depression, weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
You may be able to function on seven hours of sleep. But if you need more than seven hours of sleep a night, you won’t be functioning as well as you could be. Your energy levels and mental and physical performance will be impaired when you don’t get enough sleep.
Seven hours of sleep is probably not enough for a teenager. It’s recommended teenagers get eight to 10 hours of sleep a night. Only getting seven hours of sleep as a teen may lead to low energy, irritability, trouble concentrating, and mental and physical health issues.
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