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Pillars of health

Sleep

Adults aged 18–60 need 7 hours of sleep or more a night — on a regular basis. This is the joint position of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

Level: Body · Strength of bodyExpert consensus · American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2015 (opens in a new tab)

What science says

  1. In a CDC survey (444,306 adults in the US), 65.2% slept 7 hours or more, more than a third slept less. Sleeping under 7 hours, the authors write, is associated with a higher risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke and frequent mental distress.

    Survey, observational dataMMWR, CDC (Liu Y et al.), 2016 (opens in a new tab)

  2. A meta-analysis of 16 studies (1,382,999 people): short sleep is associated with a 12% higher risk of death, long sleep with a 30% higher risk. The cut-offs differ between studies: short sleep ranges from «4 hours or less» to «under 7 hours», long sleep is most often 9 hours or more. These are observational data: an association, not proven cause.

    Meta-analysis of observational studiesSleep (Cappuccio FP et al.), 2010 (opens in a new tab)

  3. The schedule matters more than it seems. From the wristband data of 60,977 UK Biobank participants, people with more regular sleep timing had a 20–48% lower risk of death than the least regular, and regularity predicted the risk better than sleep duration.

    Observational studySleep (Windred DP et al.), 2024 (opens in a new tab)

  4. WHO advises a consistent bedtime and wake time, a quiet and dark place to sleep, and before bed — less screen time and no heavy meals, caffeine or alcohol.

    Official positionWorld Health Organization, 2026 (opens in a new tab)

Minimum for every night

  • 7 hours of sleep or more — regularly, not only at weekends.[6] Source
  • A similar bedtime and wake time every day — on weekdays and at weekends.[5] Source
  • Quiet and dark, the screen put away before bed.[5] Source

How to start

Three small steps for this week.

  1. Choose a wake-up time and keep it all week, weekends included.
  2. Keep coffee to the first half of the day, and keep your phone out of bed at night.
  3. If sleep will not come for weeks, you snore with pauses in breathing, or you get sleepy at the wheel during the day — that is a reason to talk to a doctor.

Try it nearby

Live is stronger than a screen: classes and masters on AbsoLive, the map of the Absolute community.

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Sources

  1. 1Seven or more hours of sleep per night: A health necessity for adults (opens in a new tab) — American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2015
  2. 2Prevalence of Healthy Sleep Duration among Adults — United States, 2014 (opens in a new tab) — MMWR, CDC (Liu Y et al.), 2016
  3. 3Sleep duration and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies (opens in a new tab) — Sleep (Cappuccio FP et al.), 2010
  4. 4Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration: A prospective cohort study (opens in a new tab) — Sleep (Windred DP et al.), 2024
  5. 5Stress — questions and answers (opens in a new tab) — World Health Organization, 2026
  6. 6Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: A Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society (opens in a new tab) — Sleep (Watson NF et al.), 2015