A Japanese health ministry panel recommends adults sleep at least 6 hours at night. How many hours do you usually sleep?

An old service member, I get up at 0600 hours even if I go to bed at 0200. Generally, I sleep about 7 to 7 1/2 hours a day, but I get up at 0600 hours anyway.

7.5 hours. 6 hours seems awfully few as a minimum goal for everyone.

"6 hours seems awfully few as a minimum goal..."

Sleep is not respected much in Japanese culture. "Bedrooms" traditionally are temporary affairs, with futons stuffed in cupbards and rolled on the floor only when needed. Very little privacy, with thin, movable walls and communal sleeping arrangements.

Some things have changed but certain attitudes linger, like people choosing to sleep only around 5 hours at night and catching up by knapping on public transport or in the office during lunch break.

8-10 hours. Many new homes have separate bedrooms.

Sleep 9.5 hours last night-uninterrupted. Feeling fantastic today.

With “My pillow” I get 7-8 hours of sleep on average.

Like most things, it depends and there are no hard-fast rules.

Habitually, we usually are ready for bed around 9:30 pm. How long we sleep depends on the season. In the winter months, we usually rise about 7 1/2 hours later at 5 am. A hot water bottle each, really helps get a good nights sleep.

In the summer, I usually wake around 2:00 am, and potter around till 4 am, then return to bed until 6am ish.

Many new homes have separate bedrooms.

That's right, but dare I say all new homes. We have plenty and take full advantage of that by changing bedrooms to match the season. In warm times, we sleep in the bedrooms at the back of the house as they are cooler, and vice-versa for cooler days. It's lots of fun sleeping in different bedrooms throughout the year and my partner sometimes shouts "yippee" when it's room changing time. The forest around the house with the babbling brook, and the habit of seasonal bedroom changing really helps us get a good nights sleep.

While I am respectful of the ministry's recommendations, I am also mindful of recent research that indicates that fragmentation / disruption of sleep plays a big role in what we know as deprivation that has been linked to harmful effects to health, and may be a risk factor for disease processes as we grow older.

Remembering why we sleep helps us to understand that our brains need to regularly reset its operating systems to reach what we know now is “criticality,” a state that optimizes thinking and processing. And while it resets, the brain simply doesn't like to be interrupted. And likely will not refresh itself very well. Resulting in deprivation.

Take away, so far, shows advantages to trying to schedule sleep when it (more often than not) won't be interrupted too often.

In or location, during the night there is mostly perfect silence. Sound of crickets in the summer months. No mechanical sounds.

Between six and six and a half hours in bed.

Been well researched before both here in Japan and abroad.

There are always individual exceptions but the long term clinical research suggests 7 - 8 hours / night is preferrable with 7 being the optimal. Apparently the people who live the longest sleep around 7 hours a night - not 6 or not 8 but 7. And we are talking about sleep here - not time in bed.

Japanese medical research has declared that many people in Japan are truly sleep deprived.

The biggest concern is for children going through crucial developmental stages from infancy to late teens, having severe sleep shortages which is having / will have long term health consequences.

Many things from concentration/attention disorders to allergies to mood changes to diabetes to heart problems etc have been linked to sleep deprivation.

The worry is that sleep habits learnt when young are being continued into adulthood consolidating poor health probabilities.

6 hours is way to short - if you trust the science.

A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16964783.amp

If I can't sleep I read that.

 "They slept first for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep."

I tend to do that pattern in the summer months, scoring about 7 hours overall average.

Read, stroke the cats, avoid my phone, might go outside for a bit to enjoy the cool morning, look out the window, declutter. Anything quiet so not to wake people.

*I forgot Astronomy, look at the night sky with my scope.

"A Japanese health ministry panel recommends adults sleep at least 6 hours at night."

I hope people don't take this literally else all the night shift workers will start sleeping through their shift

I quit listening to these experts a long time ago. I do best on 8 hours. I will not try to keep up with the influencers who get up at 3:30 am and have a 2 hour workout before yoga. If you get by on 6 hours of sleep a night more power to you.

4 -5, no need for more, and those other 19-20 hours are always full of fun and interesting things to learn, even as I turn 70.

About 6 hours per night of continuous very deep sleep. Usually midnight until 0600.

Rarely tired during the day (unless hungover!)

8 hours, always have, still do.

I'm lucky if I get 5. Usually 2-3 hours a night. I've had insomnia since I was young and I now also suffer from sleep apnea. Oh well.

When I was younger - 8 hours.

Nowadays it's between 6 to 7.5 hours.

When I sleep longer than that, I feel a bit dizzy...

Oversleeping is probably not good for me at this age.

Weekdays 6-6.5. Weekends 7.5-8.5. quite enough for me, Anymore is a waste of time.

Forget all those so called "experts". Each body is different, each person have different habits.

I would say that the body knows EXACTLY how much time you need for sleep. It can be as low as 6H or can be 9H. As I said, it depends on your lifestyle, age, etc.

Ideally, just sleep as much as you can, until your body wakes up itself. Sadly, in today's world, is difficult to get perfect sleep, especially when you have to wake up early in the morning for work, kids, etc.