Sleep disorders, how much sleep do you need?

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Hey all, almost 3 in the morn and i probably wont pass out until 5 or so. I'm just wondering how much sleep is normal for a 20 year old male, my friends say i should feel good with 7 or 8 hours but i normally feel fatigued all day if i just get 8 hours. If i dont set an alarm and just sleep until i wake up i will normally go 10-11 hours, if i haven't got good sleep in a while i have been known to sleep for 16 hours at a time with just 2 or 3 brief piss breaks. I also normally take about 45 min to an hour to fall asleep even if I'm really tired. i notice everyone else seems to just pass right out when they want to and it makes me really jealous. i also notice that i cant seem to avoid sweating at night, if i am comfortable temp wise, i will wake up with a reasonable amount of sweat on me. sometimes it keeps me up because its uncomfortable. I really get the best sleep and wake up feeling the best when i just pass out really drunk, i normally get a good deep sleep that way and pass right out...

anyone else have some of these tenancy's, is this aspie related or do i have other health issues?

on a side note, the sweating could likely be from how much alcohol i regularly consume.

If you have alcohol that could make you sleepy and increase your sleeping time.
I need 9 hours of sleep and if I dont sleep for 9 hours I feel tired all day long. Sleep is also cumulative in that if one night you get 3 hours of sleep you've to make up for that lost sleep by sleeping extra hours the next night. So sleep till you feel fresh and you'll get used to a pattern maybe if you try and stick to one.

I don't know if its aspie related because my sleep patterns have always been messed up with me staying up late to study or work or travelling to different time zones over weekends and vacations in the past....

I've been up for....
five days now.

I'll be so exhausted, and falling asleep,
and then I'll get to doing something and sleep gets put off.

When I become paranoid, and anxiously-believe I'm going to kick the bucket any minute (I has some physical problems)
I act like an adult and go to freaking bed.

If I sleep regularly, I sleep for 12 hours or so a "night" (it's very hard for me to sleep when it's dark outside, which is the environment I prefer...I usually fall asleep around dawn, so as to avoid as much daylight as possible).

right now, I sleep about 16 hours a day, hypersomnia. sometimes 18 hours if I'm depressed.

Somedays I will feel fine with no sleep, some days 3-4 hours is all I need, and somedays I can get 10-12 hours and still feel tired.

If I don't have an alarm clock and I'm just left to sleep I usually sleep for about 10 hours. Sometimes I go through periods of hyperactivity where I'll be fine sleeping about 4 or 5 hours a night, but towards the end of the hyperactive periods I'll sleep more and more and eventually go back to sleeping 10 hours a night. I've heard from lots of sources that 8 hours a night is the best amount of sleep but I've never actually met anybody who sleeps for 8 hours.

Until I was 25ish I slept 9-11 hours a night. Every night. Any less and I was just toast.

After that I started sleeping 5-6 hours a night. For the first few months it was absolute hell. I've gotten used to it now, but I still ride through the day, all day every day, on a large caffine buz.

I have decided that being constantly tired and cranky is a fair tradeoff for an extra 5 hours a day. It can be kind of a hell of it's own though...

I've had sleep problems since childhood. I typically sleep four hours every night, despite how tired or not tired I am, and I wake up every hour and have to get back to sleep. On rare occasions I won't be able to sleep at all, and I'll be awake for more than 24 hours and start to black out.

I have terrible sleep issues.
I take a long time to get off to sleep, usually because I find it very hard to get into a comfortable position, but sometimes because my mind becomes totally overactive.
If I don't set an alarm, I can sleep for 9-10 hours. I am always tired, no matter what sleep I get.
I cannot function healthily on less than 7 hours. It affects my mental stability.
I try and get 7-8 hours, if I can.
I used to take sleeping pills and cold medication to sleep, such were my issues getting to sleep back when I had to share a bed with someone.

i know how you feel about mental stability, i go to school on 4-6 hours of sleep regularly. on the rare occasion i go in late with 9 or more hours its like a different world, everything is so much easier. i slept for 5 last night, layed awake for 2 hours even though i was exhausted, napped 3 hours this afternoon and now i may get 5 again tonight if im lucky.

all the staying up late drinking and partying is killing my weekly schedule, been pulling all nighters too regularly. sometimes i feel like i need to slow it down, then i have a few drinks and its all better again...

I used to sleep 11 hours a day, and i would say if you can afford it, sleep the full 11 hours.
Your IQ will suffer if you deprive yourself of sleep.

yes, i've heard the argument that sleep is cumulative but for me its not, in the sense that if i have to stay up for 48 hours then i don't need to add 16 hours of sleep to the next 3 days. adding 8 hours over the next 4 days is good enough.
Then again, i can smoothly transition from 8 hours per night to 3 hours every 12 hours, any day i wish to do so, so YMMV

3-4 Hours is my maximum. Although I felt like I get 7, 8, hours, and feel more drowsy than getting 3-4. my doctor tells me I have tendencies wake up at night and not remember (After my sleep studies).

I generally sleep from about 6 when the sun starts to come up, until 1-ish...So 7 hours. I cant be awake / out at noon, its too hot and sunny.
Except if I have class or something to attend...

1) Sleep is only partially cumulative. If you're on a regular schedule, it's much more serious.

2) I really don't know how much sleep I need. Going to bed is a crap shoot for me every night. I usually just sleep as much as my body and schedule permit, and hope its enough to not be too tired. I can't function on too little, though. If I slept as little as some of you 3-4 hour people, I wouldn't be safe to drive in less than a week. x_x

Sleep and autism don't coexist well.

My issue is I can't shut off. I have read other posts on this forum describing similar symptoms. I just don't get naturally sleepy, even when it's really, really late. Yet my body needs sleep, and I feel tired, but I still can't flick the switch that would let me fall asleep.

I'm not kidding when I say my sleep problems have almost killed me. Over the years I have abused many substances, from alcohol to Ambien, and beyond, in an attempt to self-medicate. There was a time not so long ago when I was nothing less than a drug addict.

I am still waiting for a nearby sleep clinic to call me back for a sleep study.

My regimen now, after leaving the hospital, is 1500 mg of chloral hydrate. So far so good...

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Lately i've been going to sleep at anywhere from 4 to 6am and waking up at 2 to 4 even 5pm. tonight will be the first time i go to sleep totally sober in probably almost 2 months, we'll see if it helps or hurts. I've been sweating allot at night lately too. how come no one i know sleeps so sh***y lol.