How many hours sleep a night do you need?

[CrackersCheeseAndWinePlease]

I need around 6 or 7 hours sleep a night, last night I was asleep by 9.30 which admittedly is a bit early for me, lo and behold I was wide awake at 4.15. I finally gave up and got up at 5.30. I'm working today so I know I'll be tired early tonight which means I'll be awake early again tomorrow. DH can sleep for 10+ hours a night if he's not working. I need to break the cycle of waking so early but find it difficult to stay awake late on an evening.

9 hours and ideally lights out by 10pm. I've always needed good sleep so 3 years with very disrupted sleep due to baby/toddler DS was a killer. 8 years on and I still revel in the ability to go to bed and know I won't be woken by a child. Amazing.

I love sleep. Don't know how I managed when kids were little. Need 8-9 hours a night. Would love to need less.

I try to go to bed at 10 on school nights and alarm goes off at 6:30 am but sometimes I struggle to get up at that time.

7-8 for me. I got to sleep around 11pm and wake between 6 and 7.

Ideally nine.

Peri menopause has played havoc with my sleep pattern.

Also, my face looks better when I've slept badly. Why do they call it beauty sleep? On the rate occasion I sleep deeply, my face looks as if I've suffered an allergic bee stinging incident.

I'm jealous of you

a) being able to sleep at 9pm (or 10pm, 11pm, 12am or 1am, for that matter)
b) getting six+ hours' sleep
c) waking up naturally in plenty of time to get up, shower, dress, have coffee and leave for work instead of with multiple alarms - light, sound, vibration and DP poking at me (on my request, I need it) because when I eventually pass out go to sleep, I sleep the Sleep of The Dead for 2-3 hours.

Is it not something you can see any advantage in? Like being able to get up early?

9 hours. But it's usually in 2 'bits'
I cannot sleep before midnight no matter what I try. I wake every night around 3-4 am, go to the loo, have a drink, back to sleep til 9 ish. Sometimes I'm awake for an hour or two, so not back asleep til 5 or 6am

I'm an insomniac caused most likely by having ASD kids who don't sleep. Nowadays they amuse themselves in their rooms overnight but years and years of disturbed nights have taken their toll. I don't feel tired if I can get four hours sleep, I can manage for short bursts on two hours, I never sleep more than six even if I have the opportunity and nothing to disturb me.

Does anyone else find they might spend a couple of weeks needing much more sleep, exhausted, falling asleep at 8pm through to morning. And then a couple of weeks of going to bed at 1am, lying awake and getting up full of beans at the crack of dawn? It's always feast or famine here and I don't know why.

16 ideally, 12 is fab, 10 is adequate, 8 is painful, less than 8 and I'm basically just a warm corpse

I need at least 7, 7and a half is ideal and I'll wake up feeling refreshed and full of energy. More than 8 and I feel groggy. At the moment the lovely perimenopause is giving me the gift of nocturnal hot flushes and waking up at 2am unable to get back to sleep.

8, ideally. I have been known to sleep for 10 though.

Def need less as I age. 50s now and need /get 6.5- 7 hours

9/10 ideally. I suffer with post-viral fatigue and I could easily go to bed at 7.30, sleep until 6.30/7 and still sleep a couple of times throughout the day.

I’ve always loved sleep and slept really well but in my late teens/early twenties I could get by on so much less.

I need 10.

6-7

7-8. Used to sleep in loads and not get up til lunch! Now I love getting up early before everyone else and having quiet mornings! Getting old I suppose!

@Wishfulthankin laughed out loud at this - although lack of sleep is not funny!!!

I struggle to sleep at all. It's a bit soul destroying.

A solid 7-8 hours sleep is a new thing. Humans had bi-phasic sleep patterns historically and in some countries that still occurs. Bi-phasic sleep occurred more in winter than summer and especially in northern Europe and the British Isles. Many folk could not afford to burn candles from 4pm, so after eating it would be lights out and sleep or procreation from about 7pm until 1am. They would then rise and do 2-3 hours work either by firelight or moonlight. There is evidence that some courts would sit in the early hours of the morning. Then a second sleep would follow from 3am until 7-8am. In warmer climates, bi-phasic sleep is done in different ways, eg the afternoon 'siesta' where the working pattern is typically 6-12noon then again 5-8pm, based on heat not light.

I have these phases too!

I would add that in winter I move back to bi-phasic sleep. I am not one for sitting in front of the TV or computer for the whole evening so will typically go to bed from about 8-9pm then wake always at 2am on the dot. I move to the office, grab a cup of tea and do a couple of hours work, going back to bed from about 4-30am until 7am. In summer I move to a 10-4 sleep pattern plus a 1 hours sleep in the afternoon.