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Comment by sus_007 | Hacker News Reader

As you've read from different sources, how much sleep do you consider as an adequate amount of sleep for a day ?

I think it's based on your body. Mine is very explicit: if I sleep less than 8 hours my stomach burns. If I sleep less than 7 my brain is useless. So, 8 for me (my wife needs 9!).

My general suggestion is that you should naturally wake up before the alarm rings. I set it to 9 hours and naturally wake up between 8 and 8:30 hours.

If I "naturally" wake up after 6/6.5 hours, does that mean that my body needs less sleep, or I should control more variables to sleep 8 hours (light, temperature, melatonin..) ?

(I do feel great some days when I sleep for longer..)

Do you feel well rested after that? Or do you feel run down? If the former, that's how much is required for you. Myself, I need nearly exactly 8 hours. More is fine, but anything less and I will feel like garbage for the whole day.

Experiment by going to bed sooner. Personally I figured out there's a certain time in the morning when I'll wake up which does not depend on the time spent sleeping. After some trials, I figured that less than ~7 hours of sleep will leave me in a bad mood, but only in the afternoon -- I seem to function quite well in the morning.

6-8 hours, depending on your body, unless people who say they're fine on 6 hours are just lying to themselves and others.

From what I've experienced, I think the time of day you go to bed matters as well, meaning even with a full fresh perfect feeling 8 hours, your body doesn't enter REM the same or produce the same amount of growth hormone or clean out the brain properly if you go to sleep everyday at say 6am vs sometime shortly after sun down. I guess it has to do with the light levels you experience.

As people have pointed out, it completely depends on your body. However, a good measure to see whether you're fully rested is to be aware of your energy levels after you wake up, and to be aware whether you feel sleepy/sleep deprived (not the I ate too much sleepy) during the middle of the day.

I've found them to be good indicators to whether i need to catch up on my sleep.

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