Anyone know about Sleep cycles and how much sleep do we really need?

[ShanandBoc]

My husband has to get up for work at 4am every morning

He thinks 5-6 hours of sleep per night is enough, i disagree. I thought it was scientifically proven that we need ideally around 8 hours of sleep each night and lack of sleep can cause all sorts of issues including weight gain, increased risk of heart attack, illness etc.

Well his mate at work has told him u can get by on 5 hours if you try and go to sleep at certain times depending on when u have to get up....here is the online calculator

https://sleepyti.me/

It says for example that if u have to get up at 4am, you should try and go to sleep at either 7pm, 8:30pm, 10pm or even as late as 11:30pm is ok as then you are sleeping within ur sleep cycles otherwise waking up in the middle of sleep cycles can make u feel groggy, but waking up in between cycles lets you wake up feeling refreshed and alert!

Does anyone have any expertise in this area?

 

[Broody85]

I have no scientific knowledge of these things but I actually have an app on my phone called sleep cycle and it basically tracks your sleep and knows when your in deep sleep and coming out of sleep. You can set an alarm to go off within, say 30 mins of the time u need to get up and it will wake u at the lightest part of a sleep cycle. It explains it all on this app if you can get it

As for hours, I have always heard that 8 hours is preferable.

 

[shellie]

When I was in uni and lived in halls of residence I remember one of the lads telling me that you will be ok in lectures if you have had 4 hours sleep. No less or no more, it has to be 4 hours exactly.

Apparently the other lads downstairs had all tried this and it works. The downside is that once you have then been awake for 4 hours you need to go back to sleep for another 4 hours or you will then feel really tired. So 4 hours sleep/ 4 hours awake/ 4 hours sleep and so on, ideal for students but not for work.

I've never heard of sleep cycles before, but I have just bookmarked it for future use! xxx

 

[livfc]

It is true.
8 hours IS ideal,but when you cant get 8 hours then you should sleep to your sleep cycles.On average,a sleep cycle of an adult is 90 minutes.When you are woken by an alarm clock in the lightest part of sleep ie at the end of a sleep cycle then you will feel more awake than if you are woken up from a deep sleep.Apparently,thats why people are more grumpy when woken by another human or an alarm clock,because the chances are they are woken during the deep part of their sleep cycle