If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times: sleep is essential. It’s when our bodies do important things, like experience a regeneration of neurohormones, consolidate memories, and establish some nervous system balance (increase parasympathetic balance), explains Kuljeet (Kelly) Gill, MD, a sleep medicine specialist at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital. These things are important for our overall health, and affect our memory, heart health, brain health, hormonal balance, and mood for the better.
On average, experts recommend that adults snooze for about 7 to 9 hours each night. And according to the CDC, 1 in 3 adults are not hitting this number. A silver lining: “most of us can function well with 7 to 7.5 hours,” says Alcibiades J. Rodriguez, MD, FAASM, Medical Director, NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center-Sleep Center and Associate Professor of Neurology NYU Grossman School of Medicine
The amount of sleep you need really depends on you. “There are some people who, when they get an inadequate amount of sleep, can function well,” adds MH advisor W. Chris Winter, MD, a neurologist and sleep specialist. He says these individuals have the horsepower gene, which may be a variant of the narcolepsy gene. Those with it biologically need, say, 7 hours of sleep, but they can function, and highly so, on just 4.5 hours. While they may be able to function, it does not keep them from experiencing adverse health effects. “This is different from someone who truly needs less sleep.” (More on that later.)
Dr. Gill, for one, believes that “even if people feel they are able to sleep less, their performance level and concentration is impaired, even if a person does not recognize the symptoms.” In the short term, attention and mood can be affected. “Chronic sleep deprivation can result in reduced immune function, hormonal imbalance, and memory and cognition impairment,” explains Dr. Gill. (FYI: According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, sleep deprivation is considered chronic at three months.) On the flip side, finally getting the right amount of sleep can actually you think better and can improve your performance at the gym (check out how elite athletes make it work for them).
Aren’t there people who really can get away with less sleep?
There are always outliers, though, and those with short sleep syndrome, folks who can function normally on less than six hours of sleep each night without health repercussions, are an example. In 2009, researchers at the University of California San Francisco discovered the gene mutation DEC2. Those with it averaged a little over six hours— 6.25 to be exact—of sleep per night while their counterparts without the mutation slept for a little over eight hours. In 2019, a 10-year-long study also conducted by the University of California San Francisco, discovered another gene mutation, ADRB1, associated with short sleep. Still another study that centered around 100 pairs of twins revealed that this phenomenon allows those with it to maintain non REM sleep and provide resistance to the effects of sleep loss.
How do you know how much sleep you really need?
You may be wondering if you are one of the lucky ones who can survive on very little sleep. Chances are no. Only a tiny percent of the population—possibly as little as one percent—can get away with that. For the rest us, if you don’t snooze, you will lose out on amazing health benefits. That’s why understanding what our individual sleep needs are is key.
There’s no specific test for exactly how much you need, but you can make some educated determinations by working with a natural bedtime and rising when you naturally awaken, especially if on vacation, to assess your natural circadian rhythm/biological clock,” says Dr. Gill. “It has to be consistent to make that determination, not just one night,” adds Dr. Rodriguez, who routinely hits the sheets between 9:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. and wakes up at 5:00 a.m. every single day—no alarm clock necessary.
To help ensure you get the rest you need, Dr. Gill recommends setting a strict sleep/wake schedule with a bedtime and rise time that doesn’t vary by more than 15 minutes. You’ll also want to do all the classic things that help you sleep well, including powering down your electronics (smartphone, tablet, computer, TV) at least two hours before you hit the sheets, and making exercise a part of your (ideally daily) routine. (Check out how one doctor makes his bedtime routine work for him.)
