8 eight hours of sleep: mission impossible

[Bret_Pitt]

Hi!

I know the recommended amount of sleep is 8 hours but I don't get how anyone with normal working hours could ever get that much sleep. 

Since I've been using Fitbit I know that I'm actually awake for about 1 hour every night during 'sleep'. I like to get up at 06:00. So if I want 8 hours of solid sleep I need to spend NINE HOURS in bed...

I'm lucky if I get 6 hours (so 7h in bed).

I don't just have to get to bed at 22:00. No, I need to start sleeping at 21:00... Which implies I need to start getting ready for bed at 20:30. This can't be normal. I get home from work at 17:00. That means I barely get any time to eat and to do anything fun. If that's really true than count me out 😛

So my possible answers to this predicament are:

A) 8 hours of sleep is ridiculous and over the top 

B) This recommendation of 8h of sleep was invented before sleep trackers could tell you you're actually awake for 1h every night. So it's actually 7 hours.

C) It really is 8h of solid sleep and I'm slowly destroying my body by never getting that amount of sleep

[Vivace2018 · Accepted solution]

I was wondering the exact same thing and went on a search...

Recommendations by National Sleep Foundation:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29073398

Adults 7 - 9 hours is recommended, and 6-10 hours may be appropriate for some individuals

Quote: 

"Adult: 26-64 years

Overall health and well-being, as well as cognitive, emotional, and physical health, were considered when voting on appropriate sleep durations for adults. Seven to 9 hours of sleep per day is recommended for adults by the Panel. Results indicate that the Panel believed that slightly shorter sleep durations might be sufficient for emotional health. Both convincing and weaker scientific evidence for adults informed the Panels’ recommendations. The Panel recognized that sleep deprivation is widespread and increasing in the adult population. Restricted sleep time particularly affects 45- to 54-year-olds, the age range when time at work usually reaches its maximum in the life span. Sleep deprivation’s adverse effect on multitasking performance, weight regulation, job safety, mental health, sugar regulation, blood pressure, and cardiovascular health was noted, particularly with nighttime sleep deprivation during the workweek."

The appropriate sleeping time per individual apparantly can only be determined by "how you feel".

In other words, you need more sleep in case of: 

Impaired memory, difficulty solving problems, trouble focusing, depression, weakened immune system, fatigue, increased pain, etc.

In a 2013 poll, the average hours of sleep needed to function best varied per country:

6h58 jJapan, 7h13 US, 7h20 UK, 7h22 Canada, 7h31 Germany, 8h15 Mexico

https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-polls-data/other-polls/2013-international-bedroom-poll

In general 7,5 hours of asleep time seems to be the concensus across difference sources (with a minimum of 7, and often 8 hours is cited),

The Psychomotor Vigliance Test (PVT) has been found to correlate well with fatigue.

However, the test can be taken for different durations, and all durations are not comparable amongst eachother (so use always the same test).

So, to test your fatigue after a nights sleep to determine your actual fatigue/sleep need might be interesting, this can be done here:

http://www.sleepdisordersflorida.com/pvt1.html#responseOut

I can't find a good source to state what makes for a good Sleep Efficiency (the time spend in bed that you are actually sleeping), but one source claims that 85% is considered to be normal, above 90% very good, and below 85% poor:

Sleep Efficiency:

https://www.verywellhealth.com/sleep-efficiency-3014912

You can train to increase your Sleep Efficiency by all the known recommendations, but also by CBT, first restricting your time in bed to time asleep, and then slowly increasing it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy_for_insomnia

General information on how to interpret a sleep study can be found here:

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4246141/

If I look at the Fitbit benchmark (which is different per age group and gender), I end up with a normal awake percentage of 5-20%, thus a Sleep Efficiency of 80 - 95%.

So let's take the 85% Sleep Efficiency, which is considered to be normal, together with the recommended asleep time of 7,5 hours:

If 7,5 hours is 85% of time in bed, this means that you need to stay in bed for 8 hours and 49 minutes to get the minimum recommendation,

In conclusion... Also I am quite shocked at this... devoting 9 hours a day to sleep on top of a full time job every day is quite demanding.  

(AKA: If up at 6 = bed at 21, up at 7 = bed at 22, up at 8 - bed at 23).

I am curious on how other people tackle this... do they really spend 9 hours in bed?

[WavyDavey]

I spend between 9-10 hours in bed for net sleep of 8-9 hours. Yes, it takes some sacrifice, but it's not that hard to reduce my TV or Internet use by an hour each night. You have to ask yourself how important your sleep and it's related health aspects are to you.

[JPFit4]

I'm wondering this as well. I realize I'm a few years after the post, but new to fitbit. I think the 1 hour awake that Fitbit registers wasn't taken into consideration when people recommend 8 hours of sleep, so I tend to agree with your choice of B.

And, to be honest, I'm not sure we really are awake for that hour. The algorithm that fitbit uses to determine where you are asleep or not is based on movement. So, I think you would not be able to move the whole night for the whole night to be registered as sleep on a fitbit, and I'm not sure that just because you move you are awake!

Yes, I'm in same boat. To get 8 hours I need to be in bed by 8:30 on worknights. That's hard to do with kids, chores, any time to relax after work.