How much sleep do you need to remain healthy?

Ok now i know this can vary between people but i was just curious. I've heard adults need less sleep then children and teenagers, not sure if that's true.

I'm just 17 now and in the week i generally get 7 hours sleep, although sometimes it is only 6( sometimes it takes me like an hour lying in bed to actually go to sleep). Sometimes i do feel tired during the day but i don't exactly want less then 5 hours at home after school before i must sleep..( i get home at 5pm most days). On weekends i get like 10 or 11.:P

So basically does anyone know how much sleep i should be getting or many people could post how much sleep they get?

Yeah, it can vary. As heard people say, most people require six hours of sleep, sometimes eight, and in some freak cases (as said by Spartiate), two. And yeah, I sleep for that long on weekends too. :P

well... during the week i get between 4 and 8 hours of sleep. its usually around 5... and yeah sometimes i feel tired during the day but i mean if i've got shit to do then theres really not much you can do u know? during the weekends i usually get between 9 and 11 hours.

im 18 btw. and in my first year in college and on a gymnastics team and involved in a few other clubs and stuff so i dont exactly have a lot of free time. im assuming ur in high school... when i was in high school i still didn't get a lot of sleep because of school work and gymnastics.

i definitely dont have the best sleep schedule at all so dont take any advice from me on how healthy it is... but i mean when your our age i figure ur body can handle it. plus if you've got stuff to do, what are we supposed to do? when teachers, profs, coaches, parents, friends whatever expect a certain amount of time out of our day devoted to them or what they want us to do theres not really not a lot of options. too bad theres not more hours in the day huh?