At least seven hours, regularly
US sleep societies recommend that adults sleep 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis.
Sleep
Week 1 of 8 on the suggested path
- Week 1: Sleep
- Week 2: The 8-8-8 balance
- Week 3: Joy in small wins
- Week 4: One-minute habits
- Week 5: Morning priorities
- Week 6: Weekly habits
- Week 7: Monthly challenges
- Week 8: The half-year check-in
This week I just notice when I fall asleep and when I wake up, and change nothing about it.
Opens the app and offers this topic first. No account; you confirm with one tap.
What it is
Sleep is the first third of the day and the foundation for the other two. In the morning, on the Today screen, I note when I fell asleep and when I woke up. It takes a few seconds, and after a few weeks I can see how regularly I sleep.
It’s not about records or one long night at the weekend. What helps is going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time, Saturdays included. On Android, sleep can also come from Health Connect, but only with my consent.
Why it works
Only what the sources really say. The effects are often small, but real.
Regularity counts
In a large UK Biobank study with data from over 60,000 people, how regularly people slept was linked to the risk of early death more strongly than how long they slept. It is a link, not proof of cause.
Start today
Tomorrow morning I note just two times: falling asleep and waking up. Nothing else.
Opens the app and offers this topic first. No account; you confirm with one tap.
Where it comes from
Inspired by Tomáš Baťa. A day in three thirds, eight hours of sleep, eight of work and eight for yourself, is one of the ideas the sources link to Tomáš Baťa. Sleep is not what is left after work, but a whole third. The students of the Baťa School of Work, too, kept a fixed daily routine, from getting up at six to lights out at nine.