This is probably the question I get asked most frequently! The answer is.. well, the answer is, that there is no one answer that suits everyone. It depends.
If right now you're...
- waking up every morning without an alarm clock
- feeling well rested
- not loading up on caffeine and sugar to keep you going
- not 'catching up' on sleep at the weekends to catch up..
.. your sleep is probably in pretty good shape.
If not, it could be time for a little trial and error. The National Sleep Foundation in the US published their recommendations for sleep duration back in 2015 based on the science at the time. I have a sneaky feeling these might get renewed soon, but I would guess that the recommendations won't change significantly. You can read more here.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29073398/ (Hirshkowitz et al 2019).