Why is sleeping at least 8 hours a day Important prove you answer?
Lower your risk for serious health problems, like diabetes and heart disease. Reduce stress and improve your mood. Think more clearly and do better in school and at work. Get along better with people.
For most people, 4 hours of sleep per night isn't enough to wake up feeling rested and mentally alert, no matter how well they sleep. There's a common myth that you can adapt to chronically restricted sleep, but there's no evidence that the body functionally adapts to sleep deprivation.
This gene codes for a receptor protein common in a brain region called the dorsal pons, known to regulate sleep. Now the team has found a mutation in a gene called NPSR1 in another family in which some people report feeling fully rested after much less sleep than average.
The amount of sleep you need changes as you age, and sleep needs vary from person to person. Most adults need to sleep seven or more hours each night. Not getting enough sleep can lead to physical and mental health problems.
Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and other highly successful people who sleep 7 to 8 hours a night. Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon, can be seen on the fringes of the company's novelties event.
But the majority manage to get at least 6 hours, as you can see in the list below detailing the sleep habits of 10 highly successful people: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX: 6 hours (1am — 7am) Tim Cook, CEO of Apple: 7 hours (9:30pm — 4:30am) Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft: 7 hours (12am — 7am)
Fu says researchers have found that short sleepers tend to be more optimistic, more energetic and better multitaskers. They also have a higher pain threshold, don't suffer from jet lag and some researchers believe they may even live longer.
Short sleepers are a rarity. While most people need around eight hours of sleep to be in tip-top shape, short sleepers need only between four and six hours to function just as well. They don't need naps or long weekend snoozes to catch up.
With a bedtime of around 1am, Musk typically wakes up at 7am, getting 6 to 6.5 hours of sleep, which, he discovered over the years is his sweet spot. “Sleep is really great. I find if I don't get enough sleep I'm quite grumpy.
Sleep needs can vary from person to person, but in general, experts recommend that healthy adults get an average of 7 to 9 hours per night of shuteye. If you regularly need more than 8 or 9 hours of sleep per night to feel rested, it might be a sign of an underlying problem, Polotsky says.
Do some people feel better with less sleep?
Despite this, many people report needing much less sleep each night and some even declare that less sleep keeps them more energised throughout the day. For some, they have a unique genetic mutation that causes a condition known as Short Sleeper Syndrome (SSS). This is thought to affect about 1% of the population.
Some people are genetically predisposed to need more sleep, others need more sleep because it is a learned behaviour. A study of more than 200 people published in the journal PLOS Genetics in 2017 found that they each slept differently based on their genetics.

Insomnia has many possible causes, including stress, anxiety, depression, poor sleep habits, circadian rhythm disorders (such as jet lag), and taking certain medications.
Common causes of chronic insomnia include: Stress. Concerns about work, school, health, finances or family can keep your mind active at night, making it difficult to sleep. Stressful life events or trauma — such as the death or illness of a loved one, divorce, or a job loss — also may lead to insomnia.
For adults, getting less than seven hours of sleep a night on a regular basis has been linked with poor health, including weight gain, having a body mass index of 30 or higher, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and depression.
During the early waking moments of the morning, you can be fully alert and focused to due the brain chemistry at that time. You won't be overthinking and can naturally do the things you need to get off to as great start.
Successful entrepreneurs, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett, prioritise rest and swear by seven to eight hours of peaceful sleep.
10 HOURS OF SLEEP AND ONE-SECOND NAPS
It's common knowledge that sleep is good for your brain – and Einstein took this advice more seriously than most. He reportedly slept for at least 10 hours per day – nearly one and a half times as much as the average American today (6.8 hours).
Jeff Bezos has revealed his optimal sleep time in order to be the best he can at his job. The Amazon mogul's success is seen as the ultimate goal for entrepreneurs. "I get eight hours of sleep a night.
Sleep routine: 7 hours
I knew I wasn't as sharp when I was operating mostly on caffeine and adrenaline, but I was obsessed with my work, and I felt that sleeping a lot was lazy,” he wrote on his blog. Today, Gates regularly gets at least seven hours of sleep per night.
How many hours does Oprah sleep?
On the other hand, we have some people, like Oprah Winfrey (8 hours), Serena Williams (7 hours), and Bill Gates (7 hours) who definitely stick to the expert's advice of getting between 7–9 hours' sleep.
It's estimated that only about 1% of the population are true natural short sleepers. What is the short sleep gene? There are actually three genes that are associated with your circadian rhythm and sleep –– DEC2, ADRB1, and NPSR1.
Studies show that night owls and those who wake up later actually are smarter and more creative than their early rising counterparts. They also have higher IQs according to The Independent. Unfortunately, night owls have slightly lower academic scores than early risers (by about 8%).
Children and adolescents need more sleep than adults. Interestingly, older adults need about the same amount of sleep as younger adults — seven or more hours of sleep per night. Unfortunately, many older adults often get less sleep than they need. One reason is that they often have more trouble falling asleep.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, discovered that some people have a gene that enables them to function well on six hours of sleep a night. This gene, however, is very rare, appearing in less than 3% of the population. For the other 97% of us, six hours doesn't come close to cutting it.