How much sleep do you get?

[Heather]

An awful lot of studies recently have been saying what some of us already know: when people -- especially children and young people -- don't get all the sleep they need, it has poor health impacts. And as the studies keep finding, those impacts tend to be especially intense and poor (from being more prone to develop addiction or substance abuse problems, to having unprotected sex, to rougher struggles with mental illness) for teens and emerging adults.

People in adolescence actually need more sleep than any other age group of people, even more than babies (8-10 hours is what's usually recommended), yet tend to get less. Too, a lot of adults will often complain that teens are sleeping too much when, in fact, chances are they're not getting enough sleep and rest.

How much sleep are you getting? And do you feel pretty supported by getting enough sleep, and like you are living your life -- the parts of it within your control -- so there is room for it?

[Berry124]

My family have never been big sleepers. When I was younger I used to get lots of sleep as I went to bed around seven at night so woke up early at six, but as I got older and busier having to manage my own time and get up to go to places and go to get to the bus stop for school and college in time, I have gotten less sleep. I'm 17 and I know for a fact I never get enough sleep and never have. My family are too noisy in the mornings and don't seem to realise that I need sleep too, tad annoying when my seven year old brother shouts at the top of his voice to my parents about the door handle at 6:45am?? xD Anxiety and worry keeps me awake at night and has done for all my life although because of lack of sleep for years I have gotten used to coping with six to seven hours and it's extremely rare for me to sleep for nine or ten hours, I just wake up after seven or eight hours at the weekends, so at least I get some sleep there.

I've just adapted to less sleep since starting and leaving secondary school and having a busier life, has anyone else?

[Heather]

But [i/]have[/i] you adapted? You struggle a lot with anxiety, for instance, which a lack of adequate sleep always makes worse.

I don't mean to single you out, but I do think a lot of people - and I used to think similarly myself - have the idea they do just fine with less sleep than they need when, in fact, they do not, and things they struggle with are made worse by not getting enough rest and sleep (which are two different things). Sometimes connecting the dots of things like this in our lives is not easy, or we just do not realize how connected these things are until we make changes and discover those connections.

[Berry124]

Well I never get a chance to get lots of sleep and both enough and lack of sleep doesn't always influence my anxiety. For example, I had ten hours sleep and still worried about things. I would say though that lack of sleep does make it harder for me to cope as lack of sleep makes me stressed and that does worsen my over all mood.

[Heather]

The thing about sleep, though, is that it isn't about getting good sleep one night every now and then. Indeed, that's not likely to have much impact, because we actually can't "make up for" missed sleep with more sleep another night, or get the benefits of good rest over time by getting one night's sleep or one good incident of rest. That's a longtime idea -- that idea we can "make up for" missed sleep like that -- that's pretty popular, but one that has been debunked by science for quite some time now.

What makes a difference is getting in a long-term habit of getting more sleep and rest, or a better quality of sleep and rest. (Just like anything that helps with anxiety isn't going to be one-time, but something that occurs over a good deal of time, as a constant.) We do have a great deal of study that makes quite clear that lack of sleep has a profound impact on mental health disorders, especially anxiety issues, so this isn't really a matter of personal opinion.

[Berry124]

I get what you mean yeah, although my sleeping habits now are a lot better than they were last year, a New Years resolution:have a better sleeping routine.

[Heather]

If it helps, I have personally struggled with insomnia during a lot of my life, and what I have found has helped more than anything with my sleep is improving my rest.

In other words, when I have good habits with just rest -- with taking some time each day to do something where my body and mind are relaxed, but I am awake -- it seems to go a long way with sleep. Not only do I sleep better and find it easier to fall and stay asleep, I also find that some of the skills I have learned to rest are skills I can apply to getting myself to sleep.

Lately -- because one of my health issues wakes me up at night and there is really no preventing that -- I have found that doing a restorative (not athletic or demanding, which is always my wont) yoga practice even for just 20 minutes each day, especially if I do it right before sleep, or at the end of a workday, helps a whole lot. Really focusing on learning to relax all my muscles more, and get better at it, seems to have made falling asleep, and finding comfortable positions in which to sleep (which is a big part of my recent issues, having pain in such a way where it's a challenge to even lie down comfortably) WAY easier.

[moonlight]

For the first time in years I've been sleeping well. I was dealing with undiagnosed bipolar disorder which really does a number on your sleep cycle. Now a combination of meds and knowing what I'm up against has restored my sleep cycle.

Mostly I had issues with going to sleep on time. Throughout high school my average time to go to bed got later and later but I couldn't change when I got up since I had school. In the first few years of uni I was often up till 4 in the morning. I also pulled all-nighters. When I was depressed, however, I slept whenever I could: including in class.

I'm still struggling with it. I still need to have the willpower to take the meds whose side effect is drowsiness. I need to turn out the lights and go to bed. But now that I know why it's been so impossible to get things on track before, my sleep cycle has become managable.

Since getting my sleep cycle back on track, my life has become much easier.

[Hypochondriac17]

My sleep and wake cycle has been completely thrown off for the past 2-3 years. I got 8-10 hours of sleep as a kid, but recently I've been getting about 6 hours on an average. I rarely sleep that much at one go, though; I sleep for about 4 hours at night and 2 in the afternoon, as I can study better that way. Although I've had a really unhealthy schedule lately; Before a test, I can't sleep for 2 days, and then sleep 10 hours at a stretch the next day.