The internet is awash with anecdotes about high-powered CEOs touting their incredibly scant sleep schedules and early rise times. Pepsi’s former leader Indra Nooyi reportedly logs four hours of sleep a night. Other executives claim to need just six.
The thought of thriving on such little sleep—and freeing up so many more hours of your day— may sound tempting. But the reality is that the vast majority of us cannot function that way. Nor can you train yourself to need less shut-eye. A lot of people underestimate the amount of sleep their body ideally needs. And finding out how much you need may require some attention and experimentation.
How Much Sleep Do Humans Need?
Sleep scientists are in consensus about adults needing at least seven hours of sleep per night for the best health outcomes. More specifically, adults aged 18 to 64 should get seven to nine hours of sleep, and adults aged 65 and over should get seven to eight. A 2022 study published in Communications Biology found that older adults tended to make better and faster decisions, as well as have better working memory, when they got seven hours a…
