How Much Sleep Do You Need?

 

Since everyone’s body is different, we all do not necessarily require the exact same amount of sleep per night in order to properly function.  According to the National Sleep Foundation, however, most adults should get anywhere from eight to nine hours of sleep each night in order to prevent experiencing memory problems and difficulty with problem solving.  Less than eight to nine hours of sleep per night also puts your overall health at risk and will have an impact on your level of alertness. 

 

Studies Into Sleep Deprivation

 

According to a study that was conducted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, receiving less than eight hours of sleep per night has a measurable affect on cognitive performance.  On the other hand, a University of California study showed that those who live the longest tend to sleep just six to seven hours each night.  Whether the amount of sleep a person receives per night has a direct effect on how long they live, however, is still uncertain.

 

Interesting Stories of People that Do Not Sleep

 

Although sleeping is a normal and vital part of life, there are documented cases of people that have gone for very long periods of time without getting any sleep.  According to one Vietnamese news organization, Thai Ngoc has gone without sleep for 33 years.  Ngoc claims that he suffered from a fever in 1973 that gave him the ability to go without sleep.  Ngoc does not suffer from any physical or mental disorders, though he admitted in April of 2007 – at the age of 65 - that he was beginning to feel ill because of his lack of sleep.

 

According to the Guiness World Record, the longest a person has intentionally gone without sleeping was Randy Gardner.  When he was 18, Gardner managed to stay awake for 264 hours.  Gardner stayed awake for about 11 days for a high school science project and reported that he experienced a lack of motivation and reduced perception and motivation.  It only took a few days of sleep, however, for him to regain normal function.

 

Certain disorders can also cause a person to go without sleep for extended periods of time.  Those suffering from Morvan’s fibrillary chorea, also referred to as Morvan’s Syndrome, are capable of going without sleep for stretches of several months.  In one study, a 27 year old man with Morvan’s Syndrome was studied and was found to go without sleep for several months.  The man reported that he did not feel tired during this period of time and researchers found that he did not have problems with memory, mood, or anxiety.  Researchers did find, however, that the man experienced a 20 to 60 minute period time each night between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. during which he experienced hallucinations, pain, and vasoconstrictions in his toes and in his fingers.

 

Of course, these cases are rare as most people require regular doses of sleep in order to function properly, as demonstrated by Gardner when he performed his high school science experiment.