Expert warns six hours sleep is the ‘most dangerous’ amount to have a night

A health expert has warned that if you're getting six hours of sleep a night that's particularly dangerous.

It's not particularly controversial to say that sleep is a very good thing to do, we need it every day and we need to spend a good, solid chunk of our time doing it.

People can spend up to a third of their lives asleep and the health benefits of getting enough kip cannot be overstated.

Not getting enough sleep puts your long-term mental and physical health at risk as your body just does not have the chance to properly rejuvenate.

As for how much you should be getting, that depends a bit on your age and some other factors.

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The younger you are the more sleep you need, and a healthy adult needs about seven to nine hours a night to fully recharge.

That's part of the reason why we tend to think eight is the magic number when it comes to getting your head on that pillow and heading off for the land of nod.

As for the amount of sleep you should avoid getting, the correct answer is probably 'none' because you'll die but there are other amounts which are deceptively troubling.

Six hours was named as an incredibly dangerous amount to get by sleep expert Professor Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep.

While you might think you can get by on six hours therein lies the problem, your batteries aren't fully recharged but you risk acting like they are as you'll likely feel fine enough when you wake up.

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He did once appear on The Joe Rogan Experience to explain the dangers of not getting enough sleep, and the concern around only getting six hours a night.

"It's a sort of like sleep machismo, this sort of attitude," Walker said of the people who tried to make a virtue out of not getting enough sleep.

"Men who sleep five to six hours a night will have a level of testosterone which is that of someone 10 years their senior.

"So a lack of sleep will age you by a decade in terms of that critical aspect of wellness, virility, muscle strength and sexual performance.

"The number of people who can survive on six hours of sleep or less without showing any impairment rounded to a whole number and expressed as a percent of the population is zero."

Topics: Health, Sleep

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker