For a long time, the set amount of sleep a person needs was thought to be 8 hours. While this isn’t completely untrue, the article How Much Sleep Do You Really Need? shines some new light on the subject.
Sleep is very important for a person’s health, both mental and physical. A quote from the article states,”Sleep restriction is associated with poorer attention and thinking … sleep deprivation disrupts mood … [and] insufficient sleep can even affect the microbiota in your gut.” Sleep is a time for the brain to rest, and lack of sleep can interfere with this rest.
The actual time someone needs to sleep however, is a much harder question to answer. The author states,”Not only do healthy sleepers differ from each other in how much sleep they need, but healthy sleepers also change their sleep needs over time.” The answer turns out to be that, instead of a neat and simple 8 hour rule, the amount of sleep a person needs varies from person to person. Children, for example, need more sleep than adults, while seniors need less sleep.
There is no definite answer to how much sleep you need, because if varies wildly, depending on who you are, you’re age, and what you did that day. All you can do is to find out how much sleep your body needs, and adapt your sleep patterns.