JACKSON, Miss. — Your alarm going off may be the worst sound you hear all day if you did not get a good night sleep. Luckily, there are some things you can do to ensure you achieve that desired slumber. Dr. Howard Roffwarg Director of Sleep Disorders Medicine at University of Mississippi Medical Center says there are several factors that are involved.
“You optimally go to bed at about the same time every 24 hour period, with a little give and take.” said Roffwarg. “What I would tell a shift worker is, you are always going to be edge of sleep insufficiency, and just try to get the other parameter as much as possible, the other parameter being sleep sufficiency. Even if you have to get six hours in one block and an hour or two in another block.”
“The second factor that is very very important, is sleep sufficiency. People need to know how much sleep they need to feel ideally vigorous and alert the next day.”
Roffwarg says it is difficult to find out how much sleep an individual actually needs, because everyone is different. “One needs a little period of time, a number of night and days in a row to figure that out and very few of us put that to an experimental test.”
Roffwarg also says most people do not get enough sleep. Most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep; however, there are some people who only need six hours of sleep to feel alert, while others may need ten.
