How important is sleep?

[Primenal]

Alright, as I said before I exercise a good bit, and grow pretty well. I've learned eating is more important than the actual exercise you do, but wondering how important sleep was? I know they say 7-8 is normal for people, but I'll sleep 10-12 hours a day. I also heard people who sleep less 6-7 hours tend to gain more weight (more time to eat throughout the day, and because your tired your body wants food for fuel).
I'll try to just sleep maybe 8 hours, but i'm DEAD! Pass right back out. Just wondering if my body is telling me right? Apparently my body, and mind want more sleep cuz I can't hardly get up, and guess when it's ready I actually wake up, and feel pretty good.

[jon_jon]

It depends on your body and your age. When you are younger you need more sleep. If you are in your teens and constantly working out, 10 hours a day is not unreasonable.

[Primenal]

I'm 20...Soon to be 21. So, I should basically listen to my body, and get all the sleep I can get?

[gelato]

Sleep allows for the brain to store and organize information gained through out the day and also for the body to rest (obviously). If you're a student like me then it's very important.

At a younger age, when the bones are still soft and growth is still possible, sleep is the time when bone growth is greatest. This makes sense because your bones aren't under the pressure of your own weight.

[Snoop]

I love google

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/62/71838.htm

I like this point:

Your Sleep Debt

OK, so how do you determine how much sleep you really need?

First, let's look at your bank account -- your sleep bank account, that is -- and see if you have a debt to pay. Throughout the day, you take out about eight hours from this account, generating a sleep debt. Over the course of the night, as you snooze, you replenish your account. If you sleep only, say, six and a half hours, you still owe one and a half hours. If you do this for five nights in a row, you have lost an entire night's sleep! You will then need extra sleep over the next few days to replenish your sleep debt.

[Primenal]

That's pretty neat, but I think there right. I usually work evening shifts (around 3-4 PM), and my body is so used to getting up at like 11AM-Noon. So, my shifts have been changed around, and occasionally have to work at 8 AM (waking up at 6AM).
Tuesday I had to get up at 6. ME, being a late night person didn't sleep til like 2 AM. So, I got like 4 hours of sleep. Tuesday Night I come home, go to bed at like 11PM, and slept til 11:30AM LOL (like almost straight thru). And that's the reason I made this thread cuz I was like "MY GOD....Why do I need so much damn sleep?!"
That makes great sense though. 4 hours one night, 12 the next=16 hours. By there calculations that would be what I should have gotten for 2 days (8+8).
I just wonder if there's such a thing as OVERSLEEPING? People say there is such a thing, but don't see how it's possible. The moment your body, and mind feels like getting up, it'll get up itself. Like they say somebody is over eating. Don't really believe in that either. If your eating, your still hungry, then your body wants more. Granted, you might be getting fat, or whatever, but your body knows what it wants. Only exception would be the people who are addicted, and eat til they make themselves sick.

[buttface96]

i <3 sleeping

[Primenal]

i <3 sleeping

Agreed . Eating would have to be my favorite hobby though.

[Toma]

Oversleeping is a reality; some may become conscious early in the morning, but choose to ignore it and fall back asleep. Of couse if you were unemployed and didn't have much to do in the day it wouldn't matter because you can finish a second or third sleep cycle. However, if you're a normal person and have a daily grind, starting a second sleep cycle and then interrupting it may prove to be less than beneficial.

The same thing with eating disorders; it's mostly mental and less physical. I don't doubt that people have different size stomachs and it's not always proportional to their body size.

[Primenal]

I dunno. I workout a lot, I don't take any medications, and try to stay very healthy. So, when it comes to being in harmony with my body it's amazing how I can feel a slight difference (sick, unfocused, tired, my thoughts, etc). I could take a small dose of cough syrup, and feel a HUGE difference in myself. I could take something smaller like a tylenol, and notice I'm not as crisp...Thank god I don't drink . I've actually never been drunk, but if small medications can depress me a little bit, make me agitated, etc then who knows how crazy alcohol would make me.
Anyways though, I've experimented the last few days of how much sleep I need. 8 hours is definitely not enough. I'll wake up feeling fine, workout, but maybe like 8-10 hours later I'm TIRED! I slept 12 that one day, and felt really great, but I work a lot (couple different shifts now) so to actually acheive that is hard.
They should have some kind of chart somewhere. Based on age, activity, etc. I almost can't wait to grow older so I don't need as much damn sleep! LOL. Everytime I have a morning shift at work (which isn't that often), I'm always telling myself...From now on I'm going to start waking up at a decent time in the morning. I'll come home DEAD TIRED, force myself to stay up til a decent hour so I can sleep all night, and then SLEEP MY DAMN LIFE AWAY! Like 12-13 hours practically straight. Some of the best sleep I'll ever get in my life I'm sure, but there's other stuff I could be doing besides sleeping. BUT there's no point in doing those things if I'm going to be doing them while I'm dead tired, unfocused, and feel like crap.
So, guess I'll just have to give my body what it wants, and that'd be a lot of sleep.