According to the BBC, historically, people would sleep in four hour bursts. This changed with nightlights and streetlights so that people stay awake for longer.

I've been afflicted with insomnia in the past and naturally find it difficult to sleep solidly most nights. Frequently, I'm awake after four hours but often can return to sleep for another three. We know that the first four hours of sleep are "deep" sleep, where the brain has its least activity. The next four hours are REM sleep.

How do you guys sleep?

I am a light sleeper but once I’m asleep I generally don’t wake until the alarm goes off. At weekends (unless doing something) I can generally sleep an extra 2 hrs or so before I wake up naturally

In a bed...

I've always find it hard to actually fall asleep. Some nights I find my head won't stop, so I plug myself into the most boring podcasts I can find and that usually does the trick.

Most nights I sleep well and deeply. Other nights I might sleep lightly and be woken by the slightest sound in the house. I'm told I sometimes have intense dreams where I shout and talk, and I have been know to lash out to the detriment of Best Beloved's shins!

I can go through periods when I feel refreshed after a night's kip, and others where no matter how deeply I may have slept I feel tired and irritable during the following day. There doesn't really seem to be any pattern to my sleep at all.

I go to bed anywhere between 9pm-11pm on a normal work night and then up between 6 and 6:30. I usually sleep through, though increasingly regain consciousness for a minute or two before turning over and falling asleep again. Weekends are spent sleeping until 9 or 10. Saturday night bedtime varies, Sunday I desperately try and get to sleep so I'm good for the next morning.
I snore terribly, I know because sometimes I snore when I'm awake But apparently I don't talk or move much in my sleep - the same can't be said for Faye!

In 6th form I would be awake until about 3am-4am and then I'd be up for 7am, weekdays and weekends (this was very helpful for winning a 24hr thread ). Once a month I'd crash out and sleep for 12-15 hours solidly.

Depends. I generally head off to bed between 11pm - midnight.
Sleep until 7.15ish when my alarm goes off.
Then I wake up.

Once I'm asleep, I'm asleep. I even slept through a ram raid in the shop below my bedroom.

Depends how inconsiderate the @rseholes in the flat above me are being. It's not uncommon for them to decide to put music on anytime after midnight, not really loud - but just loud enough to stop you getting over to sleep. Either that or they decide to have a blazing row all night.

Then, other flats in the building start coming and going anytime from 6am - which I wouldn't mind except they slam the front door as if it's made of concrete (sounds like that too when you're dozing in bed). I swear they must be wearing concrete shoes as well, the way they stomp up and down the stairs (which are just the other side of my bedroom wall).

I used to be such a heavy sleeper in my teens and twenties - not any more, sadly! Really need to move, but with no pay rise for the last few years and rents on the increase (as well as the cost of living), I don't have many options at the moment. I shall have to invest in a decent pair of ear plugs instead!

Always take me a long time to drop off but once I am it is very deep. I generally sleep like a corpse, hands across my chest, don't know why but people have commented on it before.

I get a good eight hours most nights.

I tend to fall asleep for between 2 and 6 hours shortly after coming home, then be awake until maybe 4am, then sleep for another few hours before going back to work. At the weekend I sleep pretty much 16 hours a night.

When I'm working I sleep for about 6-7 hours a night.

If I'm not working, I'll sleep for 8 hours a night but only 2 nights in every 3.

Here's one for you sceptics....

As you all know I suffered from a small accident a few years back and more recently from chronic rheumatoid arthritis. My sleep was never deep and I felt washed out most of the time so I got myself one of these. I'm probably the biggest sceptic here but after a few months the wife noticed my sleep patterns had changed for the better. I seldom got up during the night and wake up refreshed most mornings. I'm not going to suggest you try one of these but have a look at the factory seconds - a tenner minus 15% if you go to their facebook site and trawl through a couple of posts.

I sleep fine (with the occasional blip) now.

Al

I can usually only sleep for 5 -6 hours

doesnt matter if I feel tired or not, getting to sleep for me is very difficult, I can go to bed at 4am, wake up for 8am, then go to bed at 2am the next day

only times I sleep more than 8 hours is when I get very very drunk, and then my sleeping patterns go to [LIFTED]..

I'm generally a light sleeper, although occassionaly I will be so tired, I will sleep through my GF coming to bed.

Normally every time I roll over, I wake up and have to get myself comfortable again and then drop off again, that is usually in a few seconds, but sometimes it can take an hour or two to get back to sleep.

Heavy rain or wind making the shutters clap generally cause me to not be able to sleep or to wake up often and regularly. On such nights, I generally put ear plugs in. They block out the sounds of the wind, rain, shutter and even snoring, but I still hear my alarm in the morning.

Generally speaking, I can find no discernible pattern in the way I sleep, apart from it generally taking ages to get to sleep (anywhere between 1 and 3 hours is normal) and that no matter how tired I am, I am always awake and at my most alert between 10pm and 3am.

Normally, I sleep for around six hours.

However if my back starts playing up, and I need to take my anti-inflamatory tablets, my sleep pattern goes out the window. The tablets make me tired all the time, but actually result in less sleep; making me even more tired. Which is why, more often than not, I manage my back pain with pain killers and stretching.

Once a week, usually Saturday mornings, I get a couple of hours extra in bed, but I'm normally up with the lark on Sundays.