How much sleep do I need and get?

[infiniti.rahul]

Hi Guys,

I have been using the ALTA Hr for a while now and my question is simple-- On days when I am in bed for almost 8 hours, the device shows my sleep to be say 7 hours 10 mins and 50 mins of ' being awake'. Its always the case. I try logging in 7 hours of sleep by trying to be in bed from 11- 6 daily, and yet my sleep time shows as 6 hrs 10 mins or so.

 really want to tell myself that I am sleeping the minimum-- 7 hours-- what data is correct? I am pretty sure I cant remember a thing abt times when fitbit says I am awake, and I have always spent my life thinking 7 hours in bed= 7 hours in asleep-- assuming I know I fell asleep as I hit the bed that is.

Is it really a must for me to be in bed - asleep for 8 hours for fitbit to tell me that I am doing the 7 hour minimum? Or do I be okay with 6 hours ++ amount of sleep that according to fitbit I get daily?

[Esya]

Don't overcomplicate sleep! (It will make you lose sleep over sleep 😉 ). What you describe is perfectly normal and I see the same in my sleep analysis.

How are you feeling? Sounds like you were not concerned before you had access to this data. If you feel rested you get enough sleep. Are there days you sleep longer and feel more rested? If so you might want to get a bit more sleep in general. But to me it sounds you are still getting the same amount of sleep as before and are still as rested. If you have a regular pattern (going to bed and waking up similar times each day) and feel rested, I think you have nothing to worry about.

[WavyDavey]

Its common to have periods of awakening. Most are too short to remember anything.

I go by net sleep, sleep time minus awake time. So to get 8 hours sleep, I'll sleep almost 9. That's what I go by.

[infiniti.rahul]

Roger that. I go by the same rule. Question is, how much net sleep should I be getting? whats the benchmark?

[WavyDavey]

Inside the Fitbit app, it has averages for all the sleep stages, for your gender and age range. It doesn't give a total sleep time. I often hear between 7-9 hours, but I don't think they are taking the awake time out of the equation.

I judge it by two things.

One, is my resting heart rate will begin to climb if I'm not getting enough sleep. Others things can have an effect also, so it's not an exact science.

Two, is by my performance weightlifting in the gym.  I need at least 8 hours net sleep to keep the ball rolling. Last night I got 8.5 hours net sleep and feel ready to tackle the workout!

[bluefb]

Same question here. We always read about getting at least 7 hours of sleep, but this metric came before we had the advanced data we now have with our Fitbit trackers. I think this is an area that sleep scientists need to weigh in on.