Those who can’t fit in the recommended eight hours will be pleased to hear you can survive on five hours of sleep . Experts share their tips It’s common knowledge that between seven and nine hours of shut-eye is the optimum for good all-round health . But for many of us, this isn’t always possible.
High stress, shift work and parenting all conspire to mean the average person gets less than that, with studies frequently finding the average is near six hours and 20 minutes. The UK’s new Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, a long-term sufferer of insomnia, admitted to British Vogue she gets about four to five hours a night, sometimes less. Historically, many high achievers survived on a similar amount, from Winston Churchill to Margaret Thatcher, Newton to Napoleon.
While some people do need only five hours a night, such chronotypes are rare, says sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley. In most cases, he says: “It’s the classic self-aggrandising, ‘I’m better than you because I sleep less’.” Napoleon reputedly spread the rumour because sleep was incompatible with greatness.
Fortunately, leaders are starting to show a different approach to rest and relaxation . Dr Guy Meadows, a sleep physiologist and the founder of The Sleep School, was pleased when new UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted to spend Friday evening with his family..
