Is the Eight-Hour Sleep Rule Backed by Science?

What decades of data say about how much and when to sleep

You’ve probably been told all your life to aim for eight hours of sleep.

But where did that number come from - and is there any science to back it up?

I always thought I was doing fine. These days, I’m usually asleep by midnight and up around 7:30. Seven and a half hours - the supposed ideal, right?

But the deeper I went into the data, the more I started q…