For years we’ve been given a number.
Eight hours.
Get your eight hours of sleep.
And sleep absolutely matters. I don’t question that for a second.
What I’ve started questioning is the idea that everybody needs exactly the same amount.
I don’t.
I’ve paid attention to this for years, and somewhere around six and a half to seven hours seems to work pretty darn well for me.
More isn’t automatically better.
Less isn’t automatically a disaster.
What matters is whether I wake up feeling restored.
Sleep is when an enormous amount of maintenance happens. Your brain and body aren’t sitting around doing nothing while you’re unconscious. They’re busy recovering from whatever you did to them yesterday.
That’s one reason I’ve stopped treating sleep like wasted time.
But I’ve also stopped treating it like another wellness score I need to perfect.
I don’t need a gold star because I slept eight hours.
I need to wake up feeling like Dave.
That’s a considerably better measurement.
So instead of obsessing over somebody else’s number, pay attention for a while.
When do you naturally get tired?
How much sleep leaves you feeling good?
What happens when you eat late? Drink alcohol? Stay glued to a screen? Have a stressful day? Move more?
Get curious.
Don’t chase eight hours. Chase waking up feeling rested.
Your number might be eight.
Mine isn’t.
That’s okay.