# How much sleep, really?

≥7 h for adults per the AASM/SRS consensus; 7–9 h is the range. Less with age is normal.



## Takeaways

- Aim ≥7 h average.

- Judge the week, not the night.

- Expect a little less as you age.



The joint AASM/SRS consensus recommends at least 7 hours per night on a regular basis; the National Sleep Foundation range is 7–9 h (7–8 h over 65). Population sleep has shortened — ~29% of US adults now report ≤6 h. Both very short and very long sleep associate with mortality (U-shape). Sleep does decline modestly with age; that's expected, not a failure.

Galpin's caveat still applies: the goal is a resilient average and good days, not anxiety about any single night. Set your goal in Settings and watch the weekly shortfall, not the nightly one.



## Sources

- Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: a joint consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society (Watson NF, Badr MS, Belenky G, et al., 2015)

- National Sleep Foundation's sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary (Hirshkowitz M, Whiton K, Albert SM, et al., 2015)

- Trends in self-reported sleep duration among US adults from 1985 to 2012 (Ford ES, Cunningham TJ, Croft JB, 2015)

- Sleep duration and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies (Cappuccio FP, D'Elia L, Strazzullo P, Miller MA, 2010)

- Meta-analysis of quantitative sleep parameters from childhood to old age in healthy individuals (Ohayon MM, Carskadon MA, Guilleminault C, Vitiello MV, 2004)

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Educational summary of published research, not medical advice. Screening scores are not diagnoses. If a score is elevated or you feel unwell, talk to a clinician.

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