Is 6 hours of sleep at night enough?

If you find yourself regularly sleeping six hours a night, you're not alone. Although most of us know sleep is essential for optimal health, getting enough of it every night is easier said than done. Many adults sleep less than the recommended amount, which is at least seven hours in a 24-hour period, .

While it's normal to have an occasional sleepless night, chronically sleeping too little can have detrimental health effects. So, is six hours of sleep enough? After all, it's just one hour less than the recommended amount. We asked sleep experts sleeping six hours and possible health effects.

No, six hours of sleep is not enough for the average adult. Even if some people feel like they can function on six hours of sleep a night, the sleep debt can add up over time and have detrimental effects. Sleep allows the body to rest and restore itself, which is key for optimal physical and mental health.

A person's sleep needs will vary based on their age, genetics, behavior and environment. Where does the seven-hour-minimum recommendation come from? If you look at the sleep needs of a population, the distribution is shaped like a bell curve, with the vast majority of people falling in the middle between seven and nine hours, Dr. Bhanu Kolla, a sleep physician and psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic, tells TODAY.

com. In other words, if a person sleeps for as long as their body needs to, with no disruptions or alarms, most adults will naturally sleep for that range of time (seven to nine ho.