Are you sleeping eight hours and still tired?

Thumbnail generated using OpenAi

For some people sleep is easy, they just shut their eyes and sleep for eight hours and wake up and feel fine. It’s not that straightforward for some others. My sister is always impressed with how I drop on the bed and I look like I passed out, it takes very few minutes and I'm asleep.

Sleep duration and sleep quality are two different things we need to understand. This is a chart show the correlation between age and sleep durations.

Screenshot attributed to Neuron powers on X

And yes, those charts from legitimate sites like WebMD that show how many hours of sleep you should be getting are good guides, but remember they are just that, guides. For example, newborns require approximately 16 hours of sleep per day, while adults require about seven or eight hours of sleep but, you may require nine, or you may require six and a half hours of sleep. There is no definite and exact number.

If you don't get enough sleep, you will know it, your body will let you know. By the time I reach noon without good sleep the previous night, I feel like I have a ton of bricks on my head trying to hold me down. You may forget little things. During the time you are sleeping, your body is reparing itself, your brain is doing a little cleaning.

So the question is how do you know what is enough for you personally? Some people feel refreshed after six hours of sleep, some people will drag all day after nine hours of sleep. This can be disturbing because you can’t just go by the number in order for it to work.

For years, I thought being tired even after long sleep was a normal thing and everyone walked around half asleep but it’s really not. This is where quality is called into question.

Quality of sleep is much more important than just lying in bed for hours. You must reach a level of REM sleep that allows you to rest. If you are able to get the proper level of REM sleep, then you will be able to perform better and will not feel miserable all day long.