How much sleep do we really need?

National Sleep Foundation guidelines advise that healthy adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night. Babies, young children, and teens need even more sleep to enable their growth and development. People over 65 should also get 7 to 8 hours per night. But is this true lets find out more about that.

While laying awake in bed late last night at exactly 4:21 am Pakistani Standard Time, I made an entry on the Samsung Notes app in my phone canvassing myself, “ Why is it that I am not sleepy when I wake up after a 5 hour sleep but after a good 8–9 hour sleep I am still somnolent.”

The answer is unostentatious. The human brain is an extraordinary machine. While your whole system is either idle or sleeping , the brain is always awake. To establish this assumption, humans have dreams because their brain is always working and keeps on thinking and planning what to do next. The brain also programs your sleep cycle, it also senses when your sleep requirements are complete and signals the rest of your body “rise and shine”.

Having a 5 hour hibernation could make you feel a bit lazy at first but as soon as your day moves on your brain is adapting. For example you wake up early one day after sleeping late. You finish your chores and plan that, “ I will sleep for good 3 to 4 hours” but when you go to bed you are not feeling sleepy anymore. This is because your brain has adapted to your cycle you set by waking up early and has stopped sending sleep signals to your body.

In the same way when you sleep for 8 hours your brain again has adapted to your sleep cycle making you to be able to sleep for longer. I wish my brain could adapt to grade 10 mathematics just like it adapts to my sleep cycle. Anyway when you finally wake up your brain is adapted to your sleep cycle and is still sending signals to your body that you still need rest. Signs of this could be yawning, a minor body ache, laziness or a blank mind while your in the kitchen making tea/coffee or drinking water.

So there is no catch to how much you have to sleep. Ultimately its up to your brain to adapt to whatever time you want to wake up and you have to force your brain to adapt to your sleep cycle if it is in shambles.

Here is your answer to the question in the title. Lets finish this blog by adding a sleep cycle meme cuz I AM A NERD AND YOU CANT CHANGE THAT.