You will see many people claim that they don't need much sleep. However, the truth is that most of us need much more than what we get. There are a few lucky individuals who, due to their genetics and a rare genetic mutation, can function normally with only six hours of sleep each night.

But, six hours is still a significant amount of sleep for many people today due to high time demands. Let's explore in more detail how much sleep you really need each night, and then learn how to make sure you get it.

Sleep seven to nine hours a night

When it comes to getting enough sleep, although it varies slightly from person to person, most of us (adults) need seven to nine hours of sleep each night. The only way to be sure you are getting enough sleep is to experiment, but start with the longest period - not the shortest.

Sleep quality matters too

Technically, someone getting enough sleep each night should be able to fall asleep in about 20 minutes without any problems and wake up in 20 minutes when the alarm goes off without too much difficulty. Then, you should be able to go through the day with enough energy to be as productive as necessary.

About segmented sleep

Some people have experimented with the idea of sleeping in two chunks instead of one long night. This idea was born mainly because many of us have lifestyles that are not conducive to sleeping nine hours a night, and history shows that two sleep shifts were common in some households in the past.

During the longer sleep, prehistoric people would visit friends, have sex, pray, and engage in other soothing activities during the sleep break. Not much can be done without sunlight, so nothing too active. Then after a few hours, they would go back to sleep until sunrise.

The main thing to understand about this past is that we didn't have electricity back then, so the night was longer due to the lack of artificial lighting. With this standard, they often slept about ten hours a night, in two shifts of about five hours each. Moreover, people didn't have regular jobs as they do now and lived off the land instead, and their time was used differently.