A SURVEY has suggested that most of us are getting nowhere near our recommended eight hours sleep a night. It s been an increasingly common sentiment that too much work and stress causing us to miss out on our eight hours is the modern plague. Yet former

A SURVEY has suggested that most of us are getting nowhere near our recommended eight hours' sleep a night. It's been an increasingly common sentiment that too much work and stress causing us to miss out on our eight hours is the modern plague. Yet former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was reported to need only five hours' sleep a night. Do we need so much sleep? Reporter ADAM LAZZARI went out into Ely to see what people think.

Matthew Cook, 21, from Chatteris.

"I guess that most of us do need our eight hours. I very rarely get it and it's not a major problem for me, but I do tend to get a bit weary by the end of the day."

Kim Sutherland, 45, from Newcastle, Australia.

"I definitely need my eight hours and very rarely get it, but I suppose everyone is different. I think it's just part of modern life that stress of work and everything else people have going on, causes lack of sleep."

Penny Millard, 39, from Chatteris.

"You're a long time dead and people don't want to waste time sleeping. But I do need eight hours' sleep and I think most other people must do as well. Older people probably don't need so much sleep but people that have to work long hours need it."

Sandra Blackburn, 44, Chatteris.

"I have back problems so don't get my eight hours, and get tired late in the afternoon. Some people seem to cope with less, but it just depends what you're used to."

Josh Lury, 27, from Ely.

"I aim for seven hours a night, but it depends on other things, like my child keeping me awake. I feel sleepy when I don't get at least seven hours, but I don't have a strict routine."

Penny Bayliss, 18, from Isleham.

"I hardly ever get eight hours' sleep because I stay out late all the time. I average about six hours a night and I really suffer for it. I try to make up for it by sleeping in at the weekends."

Peter Kerswell, 68, from Ely.

"I usually go to bed early, but my system often doesn't allow me to get eight hours' sleep, and I regularly wake up in the night. All sorts of things come into play, like someone's medical condition and outside disturbances; I'm often awoken by car alarms, people coming home, and the noise of aircraft. But I generally get by okay."

Jeff West, 39, from Willingham.

"Eight hours is far too much, no one needs that much every night. Six or seven hours sleep is fine for me; I usually go to bed at midnight and get up six or seven in the morning. I don't normally feel tired, though it depends on how much work I do really.