How much sleep do you get on an average worknight?

[apathy]

The question pretty much explains itself. Please choose the heighest number that fits your behaviour. Feel free to comment on how long you would ideally sleep, things that keep you from getting your ideal sleep, and how you think your sleep habits affect your life, either positive or negative.

Personally, I have been getting less than 5 hours on average, and I feel it has been straining many aspects of my life. I seem to be using my lack of sleep as a crutch, and I guess I'm seeking to validate that. I imagine about 7.5 hours to be adequate, but my wife seems to think the little sleep I currently get is more than enough.

Thank you for your participation!

[dragoncar]

Not enough.  I need like 10

[Frankies Girl]

I have major insomnia, so average is 5 hours, and I'm lucky if it's all consecutive. I'm under a whole lot of stress at work, and dealing with some personal issues and a death in the family (and the estate crap still), so hoping that once some of this clears, I'll start getting a decent night's sleep. It most definitely is hurting my overall health and performance.

I do best on 8 solid hours, but used to love getting 9 or even 10 hours back when I used to be able to sleep.

[MrMyMoney]

Used to get 5 only, now I'm doing my best to clock 8. /Feelsgoodman.

[catccc]

I usually get 7.5, I would feel better with 8, though.   And would love 9.

[Jamesqf]

It's hard to say.  I spend about 9 hours in bed, but almost always wake in the middle, and spend some time reading &c before I can get back to sleep.

[wtjbatman]

I work long overnight shifts with a 5 on 5 off schedule, and during my 5 days on I get 5-6 hours of sleep. My days off I get a solid 8. By the end of my 5 day work week I'm pretty tired!

[CWAL]

Depends where I am and how many hours I've already worked in the week.

When I'm on a job out of town and have to wake up godawful early, probably averages 6 hours or less.

If I'm at home, and already have a lot of hours to put on the timesheet for a given week, probably 10+ hours in bed, of which ~7.5-8 would be actual fully asleep, the rest being either waiting to get to sleep or that awesome state of having been woken up by an alarm but staying in the half asleep awesome dreams stage of sleeping. xD  Sometimes I can't get to sleep until 4-5am and leave the bed around 2.  Sometimes I get to sleep right around midnight:30 and still get out of bed around 2. 

Yes, I do have terrible sleep habits, I know...

It really depends on what my overarching 'mood-of-the-month' is: excited to get to work to solve a problem, or sick and fed up with being asked to solve problems that don't really interest me that terribly much.

[Nudelkopf]

I'm a teacher, and I get at least 8 hours a night. I sometimes even have a 1-2hr nap in the afternoon (I finish work at 2pm) if I'm feeling buggered from work.

[Tami1982]

I'm having difficulties sleeping the last few months, so some nights not at all, or a few hours and some days 12-14 hrs of sleep.  It'll get better soon, but I've discovered that the perfect amount of sleep for me is 7.5hrs.  Less than I'm tired.  Over that? I'm groggy all morning.  7.5 is perfect:)

[Rural]

At least eight or I'm done for. Is can get by with the rare shortage, but if it happened once a week I'd have a problem. Since we get up before 5am, I'm in bed pretty early, by 9:00 anyway and sometimes before8:00.

I find I need less in summer.

[ender]

Not enough.

[smalllife]

Not enough.  I might be in bed for 7-8 hours and get around 6 hours of sleep, but my body needs 8 or 9 to be happy.  I'll be perfectly honest in saying that being able to get a decent night's sleep is one of my main drivers for FIRE.

[Gray Matter]

I need around 8 hours consistently to feel alert.  Unfortunately, I've been having some insomnia issues--waking up at 3 or 4 and unable to get back to sleep.  Even if that happens only once or twice a week, it seems to be enough to keep me perpetually tired.  Ugh.

Can't wait for the day (retirement?) when I don't have to set an alarm and if I'm tired in the middle of the day, I can crawl back in bed.  I've never been a good napper, but I'm sure my personality will be entirely different in retirement, right? 

[Bigote]

What are these 'worknights' about which you speak?    :)

[TKE Super Dave]

I average about 6 hours of sleep usually, according to my sleep app on my phone. I've found 6.5 tends to be where I need to sleep to feel well rested. Lately this week though I've been getting less than 6 hours, not sure why except I'm not getting tired at night.

[GuitarStv]

I try very hard to get about 8 hours.  I find that long periods of less than seven hours of sleep and I lose willpower to do things and end up kinda going through life like a zombie.  Long periods of less than 6 hours, and I'm very cranky/feel on the verge of death/tend to get sick.

When our son was born in December I was kept awake for about 5 days straight (killer combo of worry, complicated birth which left mom out of commission, trouble getting him to eat) . . . actually started to hallucinate.  Coincidentally it was probably the worst I've ever felt in my life.

[Longwaytogo]

10-6:30 every day baby! I was in the minority that wrote 8.5 plus. Check out marksdailyapple.com he has a couple great articles on the importance of sleep and how to get more.

[golden1]

I have realized recently that exercise is really critical for me to get a quality nights sleep.  I do fine on 7.5 hours if I am getting enough exercise.  If I am not exercising regularly, my sleep quality decreases and I can be in bed for 9 hours and still not feel rested.  I can go a few days sleeping 5-6 hours a night but then I need to crash hard for a few days and sleep 8 hours plus a nap to make up for it and begin to feel normal.

[MissStache]

I would say I sleep on average about 6.75 hours per night.  It is NOT enough.  I am one of those people who really needs 9 hours to feel well rested, so by Thursday or Friday I am utterly wiped out.  I have ever intention of going to bed earlier, but I never seem to make it happen.  There is always too much to get done and I have an Etsy business that is doing better than expected which is eating into my "free" time. 

Thank god for Saturdays and Sundays!

[ace1224]

i average 6.5.  i have insomnia and don't like to take meds for it so i get about 2 hours at a time.  until i reach the point that i just crash and then sleep hard for 8-9 hours

[thurston howell iv]

After work I go to crossfit, come home, shower and eat. In bed by 9pm usually. Wake up at 5am.
If I'm still amped up, I take melatonin. I think I usually sleep fairly well in the evening.

If you're waking up tired, you may look into a sleep study.
I have a friend who has been sleeping regularly (so he thought) and waking up exhausted.
He did a sleep study that showed he was experiencing a "waking event" some 55 times an our- essentially every minute.
They gave him a c-pap machine because he was not getting enough oxygen (He is young, and fit -- not obese as the doctor first figured he would be)

[rubybeth]

In bed by 10pm but I like to read for about 10-20 minutes, and then I wake up at 6am, so usually 7.5 hours. I really prefer 8 or 9, and on the weekends, I can sleep for 9 or 10 hours easily. Sometimes I also take naps when I get home from work around 3:45pm and usually one night per week, I'll go to bed at 9pm.

Sleep is very sacred to me, because I've dealt with not being able to fall asleep, and my DH has some medical issues that make sleeping through the night difficult (not insomnia). We have blackout curtains in our bedroom and strict rules about no technology in the bedroom (phones and computer stay in the living room). We also stick to quiet activities if the other spouse needs to sleep.

Tip for those who have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep: try putting a gel ice pack on your head/neck. My DH and I have used this trick for years, not realizing there was scientific evidence to back this up: http://www.livescience.com/14567-cool-idea-insomniacs-sleep.html

[rocksinmyhead]

I usually get between 6 and 7. This week I'm getting over a nasty cold so I'm consciously going to bed really early (and not getting anything done after work) and trying to get 8, usually falling a little short.

I took two weeks off for the holidays, so had many mornings in a row of not waking to an alarm. I noticed that my ideal amount of sleep seemed to be 9 hours or a little more. Man, I felt so awesome and refreshed waking up after that! At the beginning of the vacation, when I was catching up from sleep deprivation, it was more like 10.

I think different people are just different. My boyfriend regularly gets 1-2 hours less sleep than me. It isn't his ideal amount but it works okay, whereas I'm pretty sure I would be not very functional on 4-5 hours a night.

I also am a pretty heavy sleeper, so that helps :)

[tracipam]

...Until I wake up.  I only wake up to my alarm about once a month.  Seems like it's usually in the 7.5ish range nowadays.  Sometimes I wish I could zonk out for 10 hours, but unless I'm absolutely exhausted it doesn't happen. 

[Micro]

Usually try to get at least 7 hrs if I can manage it.  Any less and I run the risk of wearing my body down and then I get sick.  Spending a week+ with a cold is just never worth it to me.

[ruthiegirl]

I try for 7, usually clock 6.  8 would be be grand, but only happens on the weekend. 

[mc6]

It varies widely thanks to premature menopause…  Ideally would be about 8 hrs, falling asleep at 10 and awake at 6. 

[Grateful Stache]

I have major insomnia, so average is 5 hours, and I'm lucky if it's all consecutive.

Sorry to hear. I went through this for a few years, and it stinks. I hope it improves for you.

P.S. Melatonin worked wonders for me.

[newideas2013]

I aim for 8.5 hours of sleep, my job is physical and I have to wake up at 4:30am to start work by 5:45. So I try and get to bed everynight around 8:00pm but sometimes that stretches to 9:30pm if I'm well rested, other times if I'm beat I'll crash by 7:30pm. It's important to know how to cut the crap and just go to bed. TV, internet, etc, just go to bed. You are often more tired then you think, at least I am.

[oldtoyota]

What are these 'worknights' about which you speak?    :)

"What is a weekend?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhfpBW-nUWk

[Elaine]

My issue is that I feel like my body is naturally nocturnal. Whenever I have any amount of time off work I immediately revert to a nocturnal schedule. My ideal pattern is going to bed around 3:00 am and waking up around 12:30 pm. As someone else said, it's one of my driving forces for FI- no matter how much sleep I get I never feel totally rested unless I'm on my weird natural sleep schedule.

[oldtoyota]

This is a goal of mine--to get into bed by 10 pm. I've done that the past several nights and hope to make it a habit. One night, I slept 10 hours. Another, I slept around 8. I think I need more than most other people.

I can no longer get few hours of sleep and expect to function the next day. In another post here, I asked a fairly dumb question after not sleeping well for a few nights (woke up in the middle of the night several nights in a row).

The other thing that's hard with a kid is getting to go to sleep when your body feels tired. Getting into bed at that point would be helpful, but I am usually still getting the child into bed or cleaning the kitchen after dinner. I miss that point in the cycle and then it's just harder to fall asleep.

FIRE will definitely help with my sleep. And the child will be older and getting herself off to school for the most part by that time.

For those of you waking in the middle of the night: Chinese medicine has a whole chart that suggests waking up between 1 and 3 am has to do with the liver. I find the 24-hour chart to be quite accurate. Chinese medicine was pretty smart pretty early in the human game.

http://www.acupuncturelakewood.com/livewell.html

[YK-Phil]

I am fine between 6.5 and 7.5 hours a night which is usually my normal, although I would love to stay in bed longer. Anything more (which I really enjoy), or less, and I am tired and lazy all day.

[Albert]

Usually between 6.5 and 7.5 h and I find that sufficient. I sleep a bit more on weekends (ca 9 h).

[Emilyngh]

I usually sleep from 11:30 or midnight until 8:30.

I am a professor with my first class at 11am.   I use an alarm clock maybe 2x a year (to get up at 7:30 or 7:45 if I have an early meeting).    Every other day I just getup and when wakeup naturally (which is around 8:30).   I then get ready and am in the office still usually before 9:30.

I can't imagine how people get by with fewer than 8 hrs.   Perhaps I don't sleep very soundly, but I need at least 8 , if not more, or I feel braindead.

[Russ]

6.5 usually on weeknights. I'd like to get more, but not as much as I'd like to do other things ;-)

Less than 6 for 2 days in a row and I have a hard time concentrating and feel slower on the commute.

[jfer_rose]

I do best on about 9-10 hours of sleep (or at least 9 hours in bed). That said, I rarely use an alarm to wake up, if I go to bed early enough I don't need to.

Similar to others who have posted here, I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and can be up for quite a while. I used to stress about it until I read some research about theories that this was normal for our ancestors. Reading this changed my life by taking the stress out of sleeping/not sleeping: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

[WageSlave]

Can everyone go back and edit their previous comment and include how much caffeine you consume?  :)

I am envious of everyone who can function normally on less than 6.5 hours/night consistently (and if you have to consume extreme amounts of caffeine to make it work, I wouldn't call that functioning normally).  I can usually make it one day on 5 or 6 hours of sleep, but doing that consistently just wears me down and generally makes me feel miserable.  The worst I can remember feeling in my recent life, like another poster above, is right after my second child was born, and I went a few days on effectively no sleep.  And even after the initial serious struggle went away, she continued to be a handful for several months.  We got some sleep at night, basically, just enough to function (with the help of a caffeine drip).  I remember during those days, one random night we were lucky and actually got a full night's sleep.  I was so used to being chronically sleep-deprived, it actually felt weird to be fully rested for a change.

Regular exercise generally improves my quality of sleep.  However, I do pure strength training, and find that it demands me to get more sleep.  In other words, I can get by on less sleep when I'm not working out.

It's interesting, as it seems like everything I've ever read about sleep, from blogs to non-fiction, starts with stats on how the overwhelming majority of people are sleep-deprived.

[zinnie]

8-8.5 hours--usually 9:30pm to 5:30 or 6.

I can't stay awake much later than I do. I am usually fighting falling asleep from 8:30 on!

In college I could stay up late, but something happened around age 25 where I pretty much fall asleep as soon as I lay down in the evening. Even if that is at 8pm.

[dobatseatcats]

I need at least 10, and I never get it. I've been this way all my life - yes, I've been checked out, no, there's nothing wrong with me. My father was the same way.

Things that interfere with me getting sleep: I have to get up at 6 for work so I would have to go to bed at 8 p.m. to get the sleep I need. Except, I don't get home from work until around 7 - later now since public transportation has been such a mess thanks to two big snows and then -50 windchills. One hour to: make dinner, work on my side business, tend to the cat, do any chores or errands that need to be done, and maybe if I'm lucky have a conversation with my significant other? Not possible.

(I don't know if I even could fall asleep at 8! Really, the issue is that I don't do well with mornings; unfortunately my work schedule recently changed because my manager wanted me in earlier.)

I find insufficient sleep mainly affects my ability to cope with stress, even little things that go wrong. The inside pane of our bathroom window shattered out of nowhere a few nights ago (I assume from the record breaking cold) and I was completely undone, when really, as winter weather-related repairs go, it's really minor.

[ender]

I can't imagine how people get by with fewer than 8 hrs.   Perhaps I don't sleep very soundly, but I need at least 8 , if not more, or I feel braindead.

Perhaps... some of us don't really get by very well without 8 ;)

[Ian]

Eight, and I definitely consider it a worthwhile investment.

[NWstubble]

Sleep? I have a 3 month old.....