Sleeping

As you should all be well aware, sleeping is soooooooo necessary. Without regular sleeping patterns, we are quite screwed. Maybe it's because I'm an old fogy now (21), but I'm not as restless as I once was. I now sleep a lot earlier than I used to and I really have started to notice how without it, much suffers. Take for example when I go to work. Without a good nights sleep I'll be tired and will not perform nearly as well as I could.
Tonight, I fell asleep quite early (try 8:30) and didn't get up until a short while ago. I'm not pleased about this because I'm one of those people that puts time into developing a regular sleeping pattern, and all it takes is one faltering move for me to screw it up (hopefully it's not this one). I'm gonna try to force myself to sleep now, because I really don't want to lose this pattern. My old pattern of my first, second and third year of university was simply to sleep when it felt good and sleep until i felt good (class be damned). With the pressure to perform a little better, I developed a pattern for success in both the workplace, and in the classroom. This pattern for success is sleeping 8 hours before I must wake in the morning.
How much sleep do you need? How important is it for your performance in the classroom/workplace to get a good night's sleep? These questions are asked in order for you to address them in the comments section if you so choose.