Sleep Need: How Much Sleep and What Kind?
ERNEST HARTMANN M.D.1,
FREDERICK BAEKELAND M.D.2,
GEORGE ZWILLING 3, , and
PATRICK HOY 4
1 Director, Sleep and Dream Laboratory, Boston State Hospital, 591 Morton St., Boston, Mass. 02124, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine
2 Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N. Y.
3 Research Associate, Sleep and Dream Laboratory, Boston State Hospital, 591 Morton St., Boston, Mass. 02124
4 Research Associate, Department of Psychiatry, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N. Y.
The authors studied 29 healthy men who habitualy slept nocturnally for long or short periods. The short sleepers were efficient, hardworking, and somewhat hypomanic: the long sleepers tended to be anxious, depressed, and withdrawn. Both groups had similar slow-wave-sleep (SWS) time, but the long sleepers had twice as much D (REM) sleep. The authors suggest that there are two separate requirements—a relatively constant requirement for SWS and a requirement for D sleep that is related to the individual's personality and life style.
