Gold Standard: Eight hours a night
Good Enough: Seven hours
You may feel less than peppy the next day, but you won't be putting your health at risk, says Susan Zafarlotfi, director of the Institute of Sleep/Wake Disorders Clinic at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.
But less than that and you might: Research is turning up links between inadequate sleep and heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. A study from Case Western Reserve University of about 68,000 middle-age women found that those who slept five or fewer hours were 32 percent more likely to experience major weight gain, and 15 percent more likely to become obese, than those who slept an average of seven hours.
"Sleeping less than six hours even just a few nights has been tied to poorer decision making and reduced alertness," says Zafarlotfi. Make it a habit and your risks of diabetes and depression increase, too.
Boost the Benefit: Slip on socks. Warm feet widen blood vessels, which better enables your body to transfer heat so you sleep more soundly. And turn your alarm clock away from you. Light signals your brain to wake up, and the "blue light" from your digital clock and cell phone are the worst offenders.
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