Why 8 Hours Isn't Enough: How To Sleep Properly

Eight hours is probably the most repeated number in sleep health, yet so many people hit it every night and still wake up exhausted. That number was never a personal target. It is simply the middle of a range, and it only ever measures how long you lie in bed, not how much actual sleep your brain gets. In this episode I break down what really determines sleep quality. Deep sleep is loaded into the first half of the night and handles physical repair, while REM sleep builds through the second half and processes emotion and memory. Losing time from either end costs you very different things, even if the hours lost look the same on paper. I also talk through sleep efficiency, why sleep apnoea so often goes unnoticed, why alcohol wrecks the second half of your night, and why a large UK Biobank study found that sleep regularity predicted risk of death more strongly than sleep duration did. I cover caffeine timing, morning light, restless legs, and why cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia is recommended ahead of sleeping tablets. This episode is sponsored by Somnipods, the earbuds I have been using myself to deal with noise disruption overnight. The full list of research references is in the description of the YouTube version of this video. Disclaimer: This is not personal medical advice and does not override what your doctor says. #dralex #sleephealth #nhsdoctor