How much sleep do you need?

I seem to do very well on 7 hours of sleep. I can handle less than 7 hours occasionally, but I start to run down if it continues for several days.

i need 6 hours really but tend to be lucky if i get 4. I dont get to work on my websites during the day much as I have 2 small kiddies so i end up getting so into my work of a night i sit up till 2 or 3, then the kids are at 6am...oh well when i;m rich i;ll sleep more

working makes me real tired and I sleep very early..after watching a comedy movie, of course ( to keep my mind relaxed).. I need atleast 7-8 hours of sleep to be in a position to work.

i think the average would be from 7-9 hours... we need around that much time to really get the rest we need, and to recharge our mind, cells and body.

5 to 7 tops not more than that

I'm usually fine the next day no matter how much sleep I get, but I always seem to get up before 8 or 8:30 in the morning, no matter what time I went to bed. I think it's just habit because I have to get up at that time for work and everything on the days I do work. I don't mind though because it gives me some extra time during the day, and I'm never tired when I wake up that early...

I usually go to bed at 9pm, but I don't fall asleep until 10. I get up at 5am to get ready for school which starts at 6. That gives me about 7 hours of actual sleep.

On the weekend, I go to bed at 10 and fall asleep about an hour later. I get up about 6:30 naturally. It’s weird because if I chose to sleep in, I always feel way more tired throughout the day.

7-9. I CAN wake up before that though!

My sleep patterns are a lot like brady.k's, for much the same reason, except that I rarely wake up before 9am.

For a while last year I tried sleeping at about 6pm and waking by 3 or 4am the next day. That was great as it gave me the best time in which to be productive (early hours), but the food pattern and planning around others made it difficult.

One thing I've noticed in the last few months is it's increasingly harder for me to pull an all-nighter -- it's pretty much impossible now, I just drift asleep.

I need my 8 hours, and god help anyone that interrupts those golden hours.
I am not a morning person, used to be but decided it wasn't for me

I have a good friend who survives on a few hours sleep a night, then every couple of weeks sleeps for a whole day. I'd of thought that would be bad for the body but it is just the way he is.

Food is related to sleep, as is coffee. I can eat or have coffee and be asleep within 10 mins, I have friends that if they have coffee 3 hours before their bed time I wouldn't sleep - some people are weird

I think it's all training or rather conditioning, we condition our bodies to our environment. If you use your alarm from mon-fri then the chances are after a while youd be waking up at that same time on weekends (unless you went out and partied till dawn), if you excercise hard your body will get immune to it, where as if you stopped suddenly your body would go in shock mode as it would be expecting hard yakka yet nothing so would throw the body into a spin and things like not sleeping would happen.
If you believed everything you read about sleep patterns etc the world would be doomed, shift workers, doctors, people on call, pilots, truckers ... have inregular patterns yet studies are mostly based on 9-5 folks - the average joe.
A few years ago I swapped jobs with a mate of mine, he lasted the day and slept like a baby that night (and was sore as the next day), i was bored during the day and didn't sleep that well

I'm in college...during the week, 7 hours is a stretch. In bed before 3am, up at 7am for class at 8. But if I get to bed too late, I need the occasional afternoon nap

On the other hand, all bets are off on the weekend...for example: I went to bed at 7am on Saturday night and woke up at almost 4pm on Sunday afternoon. I wasn't doing anything either, I just couldn't sleep!

I agree on this point "useful on occasion, when it's necessary, but not for regular use." ... we must sleep, I must... in my previous days I always tend to finish a job as fast as possible utilizing only sleep for only 3 hours or less... Then a doctor told me if i dont sleep enough I might die... and the worst thing I heard you get stupid when you lose too much sleep... At least for adults we need at the very least 6 hours of sleep... 8 is optimal... Now that I sleep still irregularly but takes at least 6 straight hours of shut-eye, I feel more relaxed and more creative....

Another tip given to me by our family doc... if your eyes are tired or you need to sleep... sleep for 20 minutes, it is called a power nap, its like taking a long sleep, more than the 20 minutes makes you feel groggy...