Is 6 Hours Of Sleep Really Enough? Science Has A Very Clear Answer
On average, we spend about a third of our lives sleeping — more than 9,500 days. That’s a lot of time, especially if you’re pressed for it. But sleeping is literally one of the most important things you can do for your body, and it’s responsible for so much of the body’s functioning that it’s hard to fathom how it has ended up being so dispensable for so many of us.
Sleep is necessary for the body to function properly — for tissue and muscles to rest, for the immune system to recharge, for the cardiovascular system to slow down, and to keep metabolism in rhythm. It’s crucial for your mind to work the way it’s supposed to too: It helps the brain clear away clutter and consolidate important information learned during the day.
“Sleep is one of our basic functions, and it is important because being awake is very energy-consuming, and it's very stressful,” says Sara Mednick, Ph.D., a researcher at the Mednick Sleep and Cognition Lab at the University of California, Irvine. “Sleep helps us learn what we've experienced during the daytime, keep the ideas that we want and let go of a lot of information that we don't need, and then make connections between our new experiences and what we know about the world.”
Various pieces of research have linked sleep deprivation to poor working memory. Sleep quality and length are also linked to emotional intelligence, according to a 2022 study. And insomnia is correlated with higher likelihood of developing depression. “Your brain at night is basically flushing the toilet and letting all the stuff go,” Mednick says.
