General Fitness & Nutrition: Sleep Amounts

Hi

that's a good question and one I've been reading up on recently plus doing some training with my work - I work for a company that does corporate health assessments so I talk about this with stressed out managers in companies, not often people who do much running but they do suffer from poor sleep quite a lot!

 Generally, the body will need between 7 and 9 hours sleep per night, and yes ideally it should all come in one go. If your body doesn't get enough sleep it WILL need to make it up elsewhere or your mental functioning can suffer if not your health if you miss too much sleep.  Quality of sleep is also really important so don't eat late and relax before you go to bed so your body can get into deep sleep and rejuvenate itself properly during the night. Also, removing light sources from the bedroom can help, even covering digital alarm clock displays... 

 I've been trying to put this into practice recently with good results. You need to find your own balance but go for more sleep to begin with and see how you feel. Better to go to sleep early then wake up naturally with the light than get woken out of a deep sleep by the alarm clock..!

Hope this is useful

T