After a week of keeping your logs, you may be wondering how much sleep you actually need. According to the National Sleep Foundation, there’s no “magic number”—but most adults need seven to eight hours to feel healthy.

Each night you get less than that, you increase what’s known as your sleep debt—sleep loss to stress, or health, keeping odd hours, or other factors. Like credit card debt, it adds up over time. And it can do a lot of damage to your health.

The good news is you can pay it off. Check out the useful tips and strategies for reducing sleep debt in this series of Articles at Forbes. And next week, we’ll help you form a simple, personalized action plan for getting out of the red.

Getting Serious About Sleep

Skimping on sleep can lead to serious issues over time. To learn more about the consequences of sleepless nights, download “In Brief: Your Guide to Healthy Sleep” from the National Institutes of Health.

Missed Week 1? Don’t Worry

Go to week 1 by clicking here. It included the Rest and Revive Workbook and the Rest and Revive Sleep Guide. If you haven’t started keeping a sleep log yet, don’t worry. You can start any time.