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See how your recent sleep compares to age‑based recommendations and whether you may be mildly, moderately, or severely sleep deprived.
Sleep deprivation occurs when you consistently get less sleep than your body needs to function optimally. Even modest, chronic sleep loss—such as getting 6 hours instead of 7-9 hours most nights—can significantly impair cognitive function, mood, and physical health.
This calculator compares your recent sleep patterns against age-based recommendations from sleep foundations to estimate whether you're mildly, moderately, or severely sleep deprived. While it can't replace a clinical assessment, it provides valuable insight into your sleep habits.
Sleep deprivation affects nearly every aspect of your physical and mental health. The effects compound over time:
Sleep deprivation isn't just about one bad night—it's about patterns. The concept of "sleep debt" helps illustrate this:
People who are chronically sleep-deprived often don't feel as tired as they actually are. Studies show that after several days of restricted sleep, people report feeling "fine" while their performance continues to decline. This disconnect makes chronic sleep deprivation particularly dangerous—you may not realize how impaired you are.
Our calculator classifies sleep deprivation based on how much sleep you're missing compared to recommendations:
You're sleeping within about 30 minutes of your recommended amount. While individual needs vary, this suggests your sleep quantity is adequate. Focus on maintaining consistency and sleep quality.
You're missing 30-90 minutes per night compared to recommendations. Over a week, this creates a significant sleep debt. You may notice subtle effects on mood, focus, and energy. Try to add 30-60 minutes to your sleep window.
You're missing 90+ minutes per night. This level of chronic sleep loss significantly impacts health, cognitive function, and safety. If this pattern persists, consider consulting a healthcare provider and making sleep a top priority.
If this calculator suggests you're sleep deprived, here are evidence-based strategies to improve:
Common signs include: needing an alarm to wake up, feeling drowsy during the day (especially in the afternoon), falling asleep within 5 minutes of lying down, needing caffeine to function, weekend sleep that's 2+ hours longer than weekdays, and difficulty concentrating or making decisions.
Weekend catch-up sleep helps somewhat but doesn't fully compensate for weekday sleep loss. Research shows that even with recovery sleep, some cognitive deficits persist. More importantly, the sleep schedule variability ("social jet lag") itself has negative health effects. Consistent daily sleep is better than weekday deprivation with weekend recovery.
It depends on how much sleep you've lost. One bad night can be recovered in 1-2 nights of good sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation (weeks or months) may take several weeks of consistent, adequate sleep to fully recover from. Some studies suggest a full week of good sleep is needed for every week of sleep debt.
For most adults, no. While a small percentage of people (about 1-3%) have genetic variations that allow them to function well on 6 hours, the vast majority of adults need 7-9 hours. People who claim to "do fine" on 6 hours often don't realize how much their performance is impaired because they've adapted to feeling tired.
Yes, significantly. Sleep deprivation increases the hunger hormone ghrelin and decreases the satiety hormone leptin, making you hungrier (especially for high-carb, high-calorie foods). It also reduces willpower and decision-making ability. Studies show that people who sleep less than 6 hours have significantly higher obesity rates.
Contrary to popular belief, sleep needs decrease only slightly with age. Older adults still need 7-8 hours. What changes is sleep architecture (lighter sleep, more awakenings) and circadian timing (earlier natural bedtime and wake time). The myth that older adults need less sleep may stem from the difficulty many have sleeping through the night.
Yes. Acute sleep deprivation impairs driving ability similar to alcohol intoxication—being awake for 24 hours is like having a blood alcohol level of 0.10%. Chronic sleep deprivation increases risk for heart disease, diabetes, obesity, depression, and weakened immune function. It's a serious health risk, not just an inconvenience.
Consider consulting a healthcare provider if: you consistently can't fall asleep or stay asleep, you snore loudly or have breathing interruptions, you feel extremely tired despite seemingly adequate sleep, you experience excessive daytime sleepiness that affects daily function, or sleep deprivation is significantly impacting your quality of life.