Is 8 Hours of Sleep a Myth?

Most people sleep less and do fine, and new research finds ideal duration varies significantly across countries and cultures

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Few health maxims are repeated more often than the advice to get 8 hours of sleep. It’s not a terrible target to aim for, but the advice is flawed, based on pure myth, not science. Clinical studies of actual sleep patterns and surveys of people’s actual sleep habits have long demonstrated that most people sleep less than 8 hours nightly, and that there’s wide variation on what’s ideal from one individual to another.

And sleeping less than 8 hours is not only normal but healthy for most adults, new research suggests.

A study of 4,933 adults in 20 countries details a significant variation in sleep duration based on country and culture, and reveals that 8 hours is never the norm. Average sleep duration ranged from six hours and 18 minutes in Japan to seven hours and 52 minutes in France.

Variation in sleep duration in 20 countries studied. Credit: University of British Columbia

“Despite the common advice to get 8 hours of sleep, our findings suggest that sleep recommendations need to be adjusted based on cultural norms,” said the study’s…