One Question Quiz
Getty Images
Getty Images

ScienceNovember 27, 2018

Five experts answer the question: does everyone need eight hours of sleep?

Getty Images
Getty Images

Eight hours a night, every night, has become received wisdom – but how true is it? Alexandra Hansen of The Conversation decided to find out.

Many of us try to live by the mantra eight hours of work, eight hours of leisure, eight hours of rest. Conventional wisdom has long told us we need eight hours of sleep per day, but some swear they need more, and some (politicians, mostly) say they function fine on four or five.

So is the human brain wired to require eight hours, or is it different for everyone? We asked five experts if everyone needs eight hours of sleep per day.

Five out of five experts said no

Here are their detailed responses:

 

Disclosures: Hailey Meaklim is the recipient of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Keep going!