I never get seven hours of sleep, I average 4-6 hours. How about you?
With late-night TV watching, Internet surfing and other distractions, Americans are getting less and less sleep, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.
And all this sleeplessness can be a nightmare for your mental and physical health, CDC experts cautioned, calling sleep loss an under-recognized public health problem.
Sleep experts say chronic sleep loss is associated with obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, cigarette smoking and excessive drinking.
The CDC surveyed 19,589 adults in four states. Ten percent reported they did not get enough sleep or rest every single day of the prior month, and 38 percent said they did not get enough in seven or more days in the prior month.
[...]
The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Children ages 5 to 12 should get nine to 11 hours and those 11 to 17 need 8-1/2 to 9-1/2 hours.
BTW, I don’t have any of the health problems on the list. I know you lefties think it’s affected my mental health though 
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posted February 29, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Three or four hours, six on a rare good day. It definitely affects my performance at work. No demonstrable health problems – yet.
posted February 29, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I’m often too busy to sleep more than 6 hours a day. I’m kind of a workaholic.
posted February 29, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I sleep 8-10 hours a day, and need it. Some people need a lot less, the most influential and powerful folks usually reportedly can get away with 2-4 hours of sleep most of a week. Just more stuff you can get done with that kind of metabolism.
posted February 29, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Sleeping much more now that Ella’s older. Thanks for asking.
My ideal has always been 9 or 10 hours, even when I was young (and active). It’s metabolism, I agree.
posted March 1, 2008 at 2:15 am
Yeah, I try to get a least 6 a night. I can do with less, but it catches up with me after a while.
posted March 1, 2008 at 6:12 am
Seven hours for me. I can’t sleep longer than that unless I’m sick or very, very exhausted. I also prefer to take a quick 15-20 minute nap during the day if I can.
posted March 1, 2008 at 9:08 am
I occasionally will take a nap but usually when I’ve only had 4 hours sleep the night before. I actually slept 8 hours last night (the first time in a long time), I didn’t set my alarm because I wanted to catch up since I only had 8 hours in two days.
posted March 1, 2008 at 7:03 pm
If I get consistently less than 7-8 hours of sleep a night I’m basically useless.