I need 8.5 hours. When I used to get it, I felt great, could exercise, was perfectly healthy. Post-kids, I usually get 7 or less. I feel worse, have more difficulty exercising, and get sick more often. I absolutely believe it's messing with my blood pressure. I'm a huge sleep believer. And I'm all for those schools that are letting teens sleep later so they can think straight during the day.

I'm a sleep camel, which I understand to be a non-ideal lifestyle, but there it is. I get about 6 hours a night, sometimes as little as 4.5 during the week.

6 hours on weeknights and 8-9 on weekends feels about right, though. I usually wake up before my alarm, anyway.

There have been studies done where test subjects were isolated from any outside indications of time (no clocks, no TV/radio, no view of the sky) and allowed to wake and sleep as they pleased. Typically, people began waking and sleeping in a 25-hour cycle, rather than a 24-hour day. Blind people often report a similar phenomenon.

8 1/2 seems right, but largely unrealistic with a full time job and 3 school-age kids at home. Last night I got 5 and slept through my alarm clock.

I get sick -- colds, migraines -- if I don't get enough sleep. It seems to me that getting sick is my body's way of making sure that I get enough rest.

For me, personally, about 8 hours is optimum, but I can get by on 6. Any less than that and we're talking serious sleep deprivation effects during the day.

Typically 7 hours although sometimes it's 8 and others it's 6. I honestly don't feel much more rested if it's 8 but I'll flag in the afternoon if it's 6. Anything less and it's like a hangover. Equally as important as the total number is having it be consecutive hours. If I wake I the middle of the night worried about work, it may take an hour or more to get back to REM sleep. When that happens, it takes a lot more than sleeping in a little to feel refreshed.

Since I was perhaps 12 years old, I have seldom been able to regularly sleep more than 6 hours per night. If I have been getting around 4-5 during the week, I may be able to sleep as much as 7 on the weekend to recover, but unless I am trying to fight off an illness, have almost never slept more than that.

How much sleep do I need?

I don't really know. I do know that if I decide that I need sleep, I just read your column and it comes to me.

:P

My optimum sleep is about 8 hours. Unfortunately, I'm a night-owl living in a morning person world, so I've had to make do with 5-6 on weeknights, and 9 or so on weekends, when I was single. Now, I have to get by on 5-6 every night. (There was a period from 92-97, when I was at AT&T, when I was working ~100 hrs/week, and sleeping 1.5 hours a night. That aged me a lot.)

Oddly enough, when I need a good laugh, I just read one of your posts. :)

Throughout my life until I was 52, I was a solid sleeper. Went to sleep around 11 and woke up at 6, rested and full of vim and vigor. Then, perimenopause and menopause, and sleep is a thing of the past. I am firmly convinced that all of the mental "symptoms" of menopause, depression, anxiety, loss of memory, irritability, emotionality, etc. as well as a number of physical ones, such as FATIGUE, are firmly rooted in lack of sleep. Despite extensive work with diet, eliminating bad sleep hygiene, and use of both over the counter and prescriptive sleep aids, my sleep remains incredibly fragile. I go to sleep between 11:30 and 12, wake at 1-1:30, wake again at 4, wake again, wake again. On a good night, I can roll over and go back to sleep, on a bad night, I never go back to sleep after the first wake up cycle. When I actually get 3-4 hours of sleep, I can function as a human being. When I don't, the black cloud (as I call it) descends.

After being diagnosed with sleep apnea, I now sleep with a CPAP machine and one of my hobbies has become getting enough sleep. It has has improved my ability to think clearly again and my energy immeasurably. When I don't get at least 7 hours, I feel dull, depressed and my blood pressure rises. When I get 7-8 hours of CPAP sleep, my blood pressure is normal and my mind is sharp, and I am in a good mood.

Thank goodness - someone else with a similar history and sleep pattern. What's frustrating is that every now and then like every few months or so I experience a restful night's sleep. Unfortunately finding the factor that is responsible is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The rest I get now is primarily dependent on the antihistamine that I take, Benadryl. I'd be interested if you find something that works for you.

I sincerely wish you a good night.

William Saleton is right, sleep is biologically important.

Not long ago I read a study which linked the onset of Type II diabetes to inadequate sleep. An odd thing to stumble upon, contradicting most of our most cherished belief about the disease - that it's strictly a product of gluttony.

When it comes to human nature, the simple, easy explanations rarely hold water. Complexity is everywhere.

If left to my own devices - I keep time like an aborigene. I sleep in batchs of naps as opposed to large regulated batches of sleep. When I nursed my sleep schedule fit into the baby's sleep cycles. Now that they (the children) are all grown and out of the nest and I work in the modern world, my prefferd schedule is interupted. I maintain it on weekends but try to be in bed not long after sundown. In the winter I find I will sleep more overall and in the summer afternoon naps are awsome. I have never bothered to calculate the total hours slept btu I would think its more overall with napping than say sleeping in one long 8 hour block. I would also like to say since I travel extensivly I can sleep almost anywhere.