How do brains keep track of sleep debt?

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For example: If you normally sleep 7 hours per day and one day you only get 5 hours of sleep, chances are that the next day when you fall sleep you will sleep for around 9 hours. Or if you only sleep for a normal 7 hours that day you will still need more than 7 hours the day after that to feel fully rested.

How do brains keep track of how much sleep they lost and need to make up for?

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6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Sleep schedules can be very precise things. I, for a weird fomo and also a lack of feeling tired when I don’t get much sleep, always have an alarm set for the same time every day. This has led to me being able to wake up if I forget to set my alarm, and wake up within <2 minutes of when my alarm is supposed to go off.

Your internal clock is very accurate, and if you usually get 7 hours of sleep a day, your brain will subconsciously keep track of that, as well as simply being more tired the next time you go to sleep.

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