How much sleep do you get?

[Pip Madeley]

How much sleep do you get at night?

There's a report that says if you sleep between four and seven hours a night, you'll live a lot longer than if you slept for eight hours or more. The average Britain gets between six and seven hours sleep a night (compared to nine hours a night in the early 1900s) - but what's the average of the PS membership? Are you a night owl or an early bird? Or both?

I'd be particularly interested to hear from people like Stephen, who regularly works night shifts.

[SiHart]

I generally get about 7-8 hours a night, but it doesn't ever feel quite enough. I think I need 8-9 really to be really happy. My main problem is that although I generally get to bed early enough it takes me upwards of half an hour to actually get to sleep and on top of that I'm quite a light sleeper, so I often wake up if there are any noises outside during the night.
Also I can't nap! I really can't fall asleep during the day unless I'm ill. I always know when I'm not well because I snooze during the day.

Si xx

[WhiteCrow]

I used to get a pitiful amount - about 4-5 cos of my insomnia. I was very weird back then, wouldnt wish insomnia on anyone.

[Jon Masters]

In the last 48 hours I've had 5 hours sleep. Bloody OFSTED

[Milky Tears]

Usually about 4-5.

[Si Hunt]

I thought I was under with about 6.5 hours a night. I go to bed around midnight and am up at 6.20am every day. But I have a nice ability to fall asleep the instant my head hits the pillow.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

I'm in the 5-6 bracket - I tend to go through a cycle of late nights and early mornings, which culminate in me having to have one long night's sleep (with a long lie in), and then it begins again... I find it hard to switch off at night, so rather than sit in the dark bored, I watch TV till my eyes give in.

[Andrew Curnow]

I usually go to sleep around midnight, and the alarm goes off at 6:25... and then every nine minutes after that for about forty minutes. So that's 6-7 hours I guess. At the weekends I occasionally get a bit more, but usually Little Miss is up by 8 at the latest, so not much more!

HST, I more often than not have a 10-15 minute doze on the settee around about 6:30, without which I do feel very tired later in the evening.

[Stephen Morgan]

How much sleep do you get at night?



I'd be particularly interested to hear from people like Stephen, who regularly works night shifts.

I get about six hours, I go to bed around eight in the morning, have to wind down a bit after work, and I get up just after two o-clock, but I still feel tired. I usually have a cuppa before taking the dog for a walk to get some air and refresh myself. Today though I slept at my mother's because we are having some electrical work done in the bathroom and wouldn't have slept, as it was I was too warm and woke up with a headache.
During weekends I'm usually too tired to do anything, but come 9-o clock in the evening I'm wide awake and raring to go, so I get very restless during the nights and really don't sleep very much.
On holidays it takes me at least four days to get my body clock adjusted, after which I can sleep much better.

[cullsoft]

Generally it varies, but more often than not I fall into the 6-7hrs range, going to bed around 12-1 and getting up around 7-8. I rarely find myself having hefty lie-ins at the weekend... usually I'm up at around 8-9, although sometimes I find myself going to bed after 1am.

Either way, I'm inclined to feel that I don't get enough sleep... I rarely wake up feeling refreshed and ready to go, but rather want to roll over and go back to sleep (which a couple of time this week has left me waking up well after 8am and racing to get to work!)

[Ralph]

7 hours is a normal sleep.

5 hours or less and I'm grumpy.

8-12 hours is luxury sleep reserved for special occasions

[Larry]

week day it's around 7 hours.

weekends and days off 9 or 10 hours.

[Dirk Gently]

Between 7 & 8 hours usually. Less than 5 & I'm fine, more than 6 & I'm fine, but if I only get between 5 & 6 hours then I can really be in a foul mood. Weird. I can only assume that between the 5th & 6th hour of sleep is when I have my deepest REM sleep & if it gets interrupted then it unbalances me for a period.

[Stuart Wallis]

It can depend on what mood I'm in when I go to bed. If I've had a bad day, I tend to sleep less; a couple of nights ago for instance, I didn't get to sleep until 1.30 and was awake at 5. On average it's six or seven hours though.

[stuartdg]

More often then not i'm in bed well after midnight and usually awake before 6am.This is largely due to work as i usually start at 7am

[Ralph]

Sometimes I plan to get to bed before midnight but come on this site and get absorbed in - that was a benefit of the old BBC site!

[MacNimon]

I usually get to bed around 10.30/11.00 but I'm up at 5.00am when I'm dayshift, and catch up a bit at weekends. I get longer when I'm backshift, as I don't start work till 2.00pm so there's nothing to get up for. Nightshift is the worst though...I've no problem sleeping during the day, I usually get around 7 hours a day then (from about 8.00am till 3.00pm usually). I don't feel tired too much during the night (sleepy tired, at any rate) but there's always a general feeling of just can't be bothered doing anything for the whole week. And it's worse on Saturdays, for some reason! It's just a body clock thing rather than actual tiredness, I think...it must all be a mental thing because I get as much sleep during the week that I'm nightshift as I do when I'm dayshift. Thankfully for the moment nightshifts seem to be a thing of the past!

[Wayne]

6-7. Usually nearer to 6.
That seems to be my natural amount needed these days. I used to sleep for 8 to 10hrs at one time, but as i've got older i seem to wake up after 6 to 7. Although every few days or about once a week, i seem to naturally top up with an 8/8.5hr kip.

[WhiteCrow]

I went to bed an hour early last night.

All I got for my trouble was an hour of extra wierd dreams - some hot chick sending me pictures on Facebook (alas no), one I often have where someone has "pimped my garage" into a secret lair (I like that one), and other assorted wierdness.

[Stephen Morgan]

Yesterday I was on a twelve hour shift, I have another today, Thursday and Friday. I've had about four hours sleep today, there was a lot of noise outside and it made me very restless. The result is I've got up with a headache, I can't take too many Paracetamol as they have the effect of making me more tired, so I hope that come six o-clock when I start work andrenalin will kick in and keep me going for the shift I've got in front of me. I'll try and have a short nap though before I go.

I'll try and add some more to this thread as my shift progresses later.

[Carol Baynes]

Not enough!

I get about 6 or 7 if I'm really lucky. I love being in bed. Not in a depressing "Oh no, I can't face the world" kind of way- I just like to dream.

[Captain Tancredi]

Not enough!

I think the phrase is "less bed, more sleep"...

When I'm working, the usual is about 7-7.5 hours because if I can get the bus at 7.10, I can start work at 8 and finish at 4. Left to my own devices I tend to sleep for about nine, although it depends what wakes me up- here at home, no matter when I go to bed, the vans going into the builder's yard next door will wake me up from 7.30 onwards, while at my mum and dad's, the head of my bed is the other side of the wall from the loo.

[Jeff]

5-7 usually for me, especially on work nights. Sometimes I will sleep in and get 8 hours on a Saturday morning... I usually try for about six though.. A lot of nights I will only get 5 and I am ok, but if I only get 5 for too many nights in a row it wears me down and I will be fighting off sleep while I am driving to work. I do get up in the middle of the night too.. Sometime I wake up on my own needing to use the bathroom, but with kids there are also lots of times when I am awoken.

[Dirk Gently]

Not enough!

I get about 6 or 7 if I'm really lucky.

Are you still talking about sleep?

[Philipnet]

I should get 8 hours.
I know, because due to much experimentation, I've found that with 7 hours, I am still tired during the day, but with 8 hours I'm not.
However, I don't always get 8 hours of sleep.
And sometimes - I don't even get 7!