Some of us get so caught up in the buzz of requirements of life that we have made sleep less and less of a priority. Plus, due to numerous external influences such as caffeine and electronics, most of us have forgotten what being ‘truly’ rested feels like. Which begs the question:

How much sleep do we actually need to function properly?

8 hours seems to be the ‘magic’ number for the average hours of sleep an adult should get. It doesn’t seem to be known where this number came from; in surveys most adults answer that they get from 7 hours to 9 hours of sleep every night, of which 8 seems to be the cumulative average.

However, research done at the University of California suggests that 8 was not a significant number in our evolutionary past and research done on rural tribes show they survive with only 6 – 7 hours of sleep.

“And those people are pretty healthy,” adds Derk-Jan Dijk at the University of Surrey.

So 7 seems to be a minimum requirement, analysis shows regularly getting less sleep is correlated to a higher risk of obesity, heart disease, depression, and early death.

So, get loads of sleep, right? Not quite.

A study done on cognitive abilities of women 70 or older allowed for the opposite end to be examined, and it has been proved that, essentially, getting 9 hours of sleep or more is just as harmful as getting 5 or less. Cognitive ability peaks at about 7 hours and actually declines after that - that’s why you feel even more tired after an especially long sleep.

Obviously, the amount you sleep depends on your age, the younger you are, the more sleep you need.

Teenagers should be getting a healthy 8 – 10 hours of sleep every night, but very few actually do these days, (luckily!) this can be scientifically explained. Teens’ biological clocks are programmed to stay awake late into the night, which explains why they have difficulty getting up and how they want to be asleep in their early morning classes! Some secondary schools have even moved their starting to a later time so students can focus better.

No study will match perfectly to your personal body clock and how much sleep you specifically need. During days off, you could test this by sleeping at a fair time and seeing when you naturally want to wake up without any alarms etc.

After a few days, you might see a pattern emerging, and it is only good to stick to it to remain happy and healthy throughout your life, especially if you are a teenager and your body is at a developing stage. Remember, once your body is set it won’t change very easily. This doesn’t mean, nonetheless, that you have to skip out on those late night movies all the time!