Health Myth: You need an exact eight hours of sleep every night.

If you can get eight hours of sleep a night, that is great! It is not a set-in-stone number, though, so don’t sweat it if you can’t hit that number. The Nation Sleep Foundation doesn’t even have a solid amount that they recommend you get every night, but rather a range. The range they suggest is between seven hours and nine hours a night. If you can get in between that, you are doing good. As long as you feel rested throughout the day, you should be getting enough sleep, which, unfortunately, many people lack.

Lots of people have a tracker, whether that be a Fitbit or an Apple Watch. These devices come with free apps where you can see how you slept the night before. It will give you your REM sleep range, light sleep, and when you woke up during the night. Keep track of these sleep patterns and how you felt during the day. You may find that you are more productive during the day when you get seven hours of sleep instead of nine. Everyone is different, so you just need to go by how you feel.