Sleep is extremely important and necessary to function efficiently and productively on a daily basis. What happens when your body doesn’t get enough sleep? In a study, researchers were able to find out how much sleep is required each night by assigning groups of people to four, six, and eight hours of sleep per night over a period of fourteen days. Those who slept for eight hours were more attentive and had fewer cognitive lapses. Those who slept six hours showed a steady decline in cognitive testing. In fact, the people who slept for six hours over a two-week span displayed a similar reaction time to those who had a blood alcohol level of 0.1%, which is the equivalent to being legally intoxicated.
Those who slept for four hours suffered even more and occasionally fell asleep during their cognitive tests. In both groups, the participants’ brain functions decreased daily, resulting in the accumulation of sleep debt. However, it was noted that after a couple nights of good quality sleep, the body and brain were fully able to recover. But if sleep debt continued, the recovery time would take longer.
In conclusion, most studies show that anywhere from seven to eight hours of sleep each night is best. However, there are individuals who genuinely don’t need a lot of sleep each night and this is attributed to genetics. Ultimately, a person’s body and brain needs to figure out its own sleep needs.
