Sleep - recommended amounts

[GardenerMichele]

If the recommended amount of sleep is 8 hours and typically most people are awake for up to 20% and the Fitbit records time sleeping then should I be shortening my target sleep amount to about six and a half hours to seven hours?  I seem to be constantly failing but I am spending 8 hours in bed.

[WavyDavey]

Hi @GardenerMichele,

I actually do the opposite. That is, if I'm awake one hour per night, I'll bump up my target to 9 hours, giving me 8 hours of quality sleep. But there's no reason you can't do it the way you propose.

[GardenerMichele]

It makes me wonder how we got to deciding on 8 hours sleep as if this is the designated amount - before fitbit 'measured' our sleep, then typically it would seem that we would need to account for part of that 8 hours being in some form of wakefulness - generally for me something that I am totally unaware of.

[emili]

Hey @GardenerMichele I myself can not sleep for that length of time. If I get six hours I am a happy camper. I can't even explain why. I am not thinking about anything or worried, it is just how I am. I look at the data as a nice to know, but I can't let it keep me up at night (see what I did there :))

If you want some light reading I found this http://www.healthline.com/health/science-sleep-why-you-need-7-8-hours-night#overview1 It can answer some questions about where the 8 hours came from. Sweet dreams!

[Alicat2104]

Everyone has different needs and the goal can be changed accordingly.

[GardenerMichele]

Thank you Emili.  I think I need to do some more research - your article was helpful.