Within the field of sleep science, there are few questions asked more frequently than, "How much sleep do we need?" While the answer eight hours seems to make the rounds in the media (and anything less would appear to be cause instant harm or even death), what is the answer? Is the question even answerable? In this episode we will:

• Evaluate how age is constantly influencing sleep need
• List other factors affecting sleep amount for an individual including sleep quality, activity level, previous sleep deprivation, pregnancy and illness
• Explore the inherent difficulties in applying epidemiological sleep data to individual sleepers
• Look at the data rejecting the idea that 8 hours is the ideal amount of sleep for adults 
• Define the "J curve" commonly seen in studies exploring optimal sleep amounts
• Understand how sleep behaviors need can be easily mislead in terms of indicators of average sleep need
• Touch upon how individuals who can get by better with inadequate sleep may misinterpret this as being a healthy practice

Produced by: Maeve Winter

More

• Twitter: @drchriswinter
• IG: @drchriwinter
• Threads: @drchriswinter
• Bluesky: @drchriswinter
• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!