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Guide

How much sleep do adults need?

Eight hours is the number most of us grew up with. The recommendation sleep scientists agreed on is less tidy and more useful: at least seven, night after night, with room for people who need more.

Neaion · 4 November 2026 · 3 min read · Written with AI help

In short. Adults aged 18 to 60 should sleep 7 or more hours a night on a regular basis, according to a 2015 consensus of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) follows. For older adults the CDC gives 7 to 9 hours from 61 to 64, and 7 to 8 hours from 65. How well and how regularly you sleep counts as well as how long.

Where the number comes from

In 2015 a panel of fifteen sleep doctors and researchers set out to answer the question properly. Their search of the research turned up 5,314 papers on sleep and health, from the heart and metabolism to mood, immunity, pain, performance and death; over twelve months they weighed the evidence and voted in rounds until they agreed. Their answer for adults aged 18 to 60: 7 or more hours a night, regularly. The sentence has no upper limit. For most people, the panel found it unclear whether sleeping more than 9 hours is a risk, and said it may be right for young adults, for people catching up after short nights and for people who are ill.

By age

The CDC’s table takes the first line from the 2015 consensus and the other two from a National Sleep Foundation panel of the same year.

What short sleep is linked with

Regularly sleeping less than 7 hours is associated with weight gain and obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, depression and a higher risk of death, as well as weaker immunity, more pain, worse performance, more mistakes and more accidents. “Associated” is the panel’s word, and a careful one: short sleep and these problems turn up together, which does not mean short sleep alone causes each of them.

Hours are not the whole story

The panel named four parts of healthy sleep: enough of it, good quality, sensible timing and regularity, and no sleep disorder. The CDC lists trouble falling asleep, waking again and again in the night, and feeling tired after what should have been enough sleep as signs that quality, not quantity, is the problem.

What helps

When to see a doctor

The CDC’s advice is to talk to a doctor if you regularly have trouble sleeping, or notice signs of a sleep disorder such as insomnia, restless legs, narcolepsy or sleep apnoea. A sleep diary or a sleep study may come next.

On a ring

A ring estimates how long you slept fairly well, and which stage you were in less well: what the studies found. Sleep trends are among the wellness insights we are working on for a later Lychnos Ring; the first ring does not track sleep. And if a sleep score starts to keep you awake, that has a name.

Sources, read 4 November 2026: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about sleep (page of 15 May 2024); Watson and colleagues, recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: a joint consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society, Sleep, 2015. General information, not medical advice.

Questions

Is 6 hours of sleep enough?

For most adults, not as a habit. The US sleep societies recommend 7 or more hours a night for adults aged 18 to 60, and link regularly sleeping less than 7 hours with weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, depression and more accidents. Needs differ between people, through genes, health, habits and surroundings.

Can you sleep too much?

For most adults it is not clear that regularly sleeping more than 9 hours carries a health risk, the 2015 consensus found, and it may be right for young adults, people catching up on lost sleep and people who are ill. If you sleep long and still feel tired, talk to a doctor.