In an interview with the earlier this week the Wall Street Journal, actor, museum curator, and iconic coparenter Dakota Johnson shared “sleep is my number one priority in life.” She also put a revealed the somewhat shocking number of hours a night she likes to sleep: 14 is her ideal, and she can’t function without at least ten hours a night.
When Seema Khosla, MD, a Fargo-based internist and the medical director of the North Dakota Center for Sleep, heard about Johnson’s interview, she was thrilled. “It’s really cool that somebody is actually advocating for sleep,” Khosla says. “So many people have been dismissive of it for so long—it used to be a badge of honor if you didn’t do it. But I think people are finally realizing how important sleeping is to your physical and mental health.”
And while 14 hours may be a bit extreme, Khosla says Johnson’s no-less-than-10 rule is actually somewhat accurate. “We used to hang our hat on the idea that six to eight hours was ideal, but a more recent study actually moved those numbers to seven to nine.”
From there, you need to figure out your own placement on the bell curve, which can change day-to-day, which can be influenced by things like genetics, daily activity, current health (sick people need more sleep), and emotional health.
“Unfortunately, there is no magic number,” Khosla says. “Try reflecting on how you feel when you wake up in the morning. If you’re waking up on your own and feel well-rested, then that means you’re getting close to your ideal number of hours of sleep.”
Sleep is an incredibly young field of research, so doctors like Khosla are just starting to truly understand its importance in our lives. With that in mind, she has a universal better-sleep tip for all of us out there not hitting 14 (or even 10) hours every single night: “Pay attention to your environment. Make sure it‘s cool, quiet, and conducive to sleep. If you find yourself being woken up or bothered by something, eliminate it for the next night. The more you work toward this, the more restorative your sleep will be.”