Even More Tired After A Long Night's Sleep ?! Why TOO Much Sleep Isn't Healthy Either!
New Years Eve has just passed, and most of us probably stayed up late celebrating it.
Then, you go to bed and treat yourself to a full 10 hour sleep (or even more) - but why is it that we often wake up feeling even MORE tired after such a long night's sleep ?
This has probably happened to everyone before who had a few short nights and then decided to make up for it with one big lie-in.
We all know that not sleeping enough is bad for our health - it leads to concentration problems, headaches, drowsiness, memory loss and more.
But it seems like sleeping TOO much isn't beneficial to us either!
How much sleep is enough / too much?
The general assumption is that an adult needs 8 hours of sleep - but this actually varies a lot.
Depending on your age, activity, and lifestyle, you might be needing more or less.
Scientists have adapted to recommending 7-9 hours of sleep for adults between the ages of 18 and 64.
But some people actually genetically need more, and others need less sleep, so it all depends on personal preference and you'll have to find out what works best for your personally!
Oversleeping
The problem with oversleeping is that it messes up our circadian rhythm - our sleeping and waking cycle.
Sleeping and waking times are controlled by lots of different mechanism in our body, and once the rhythm is thrown off we can experience side effects similar to jet lag.
Generally, more than 10 hours of sleep each night are considered oversleeping.
Oversleeping results in feeling drowsy and groggy, headaches, and often back pain.
If this happens regularly, there's actually a real medical condition called hypersomnia where patients have an excessive need for sleep that can't be relieved with naps.
Patients with hypersomnia can additionally suffer from loss of energy and appetite, anxiety, and increased risk for heart diseases.
Health risks of oversleeping
A 2014 study on twins showed that the risk for depression was greater in those twins who don't sleep enough, or who sleep too much.
And another study has also shown that the risk for coronary heart disease was almost the same for people who sleep less than 4 or more than 8 hours per night (this is a risk increase of 35% compared to normal sleepers!)
In general, oversleeping can lead to these health risks:
- Increased risk of heart disease
- Increased risk of Diabetes
- Increased risk of Obesity
- Increased risk of Stroke
- Mental health issues like anxiety or depression
- (Lower) back pain
How to stop oversleeping
Most importantly: try exposing yourself to bright light as you wake up, to signal your body that it's time to wake up and support our circadian rhythm.
The same goes for night time - try to sleep in a dark environment and avoid blue light (e.g. from electronic devices) an hour before bed time.
If you have trouble getting up as soon as your alarm sounds, try placing it away from your bed so you'll actually have to get up in order to turn it off.
It also helps to establish a sleep schedule - going to bed and waking up at regular times everyday (also on the weekends) so that your body can get used to it and wake up automatically.
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It seems like that EVERYTHING you do (or don't do) puts you at risk for
And yet...our life expectancy continues to increase....
I think I'll sleep on it
oh...by the way..
.
Haha, yes that's true, nowadays it really seems like everything fun / delicious is bad for our general health and increases the risk for diseases!
This depends so much person to person. You really can't compare people who don't workout to someone who is training for a marathon. Plus I feel like the study saying that people with 10+ hours of sleep are at risk for weight gain and all that doesn't factor people in who are involved in intense physical training. I can tell you that a lot of elite athletes are going to be closer to the 10 hours of sleep mark.
100% agreed! Like mentioned above, the personal need for sleep depends so much on your age, activity and overall lifestyle. Even a statement like "7-9 hours" is still very general and might not work for many individuals.
Yup, sleep is tricky. Find that ideal zone, and stick with it. Oversleeping and waking up thinking "I'm refreshed now with more sleep"... and then bam... it's like you're still tired. Then, someone with similar conditions might just go back to sleep, and keep sleeping, and keep being tired, and never breaking out of the sleep-cycle of doom! lol
Thanks for your input - yes, you're right! Too little sleep is bad, too much sleep is bad - finding the right balance can be hard.
All depends on the individual no doubt
Definitely. Even "7-9 hours" still might not be accurate for a lot of people.
I know this would not work for me because I can't fall asleep until 2:00 am sometimes and then would need to wake at 6:30 am. Wish I could fall asleep without my joint pain. 😴💤
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A very interesting writeup on sleep. Many people do not realize that we each have an optimal amount of sleep that our body needs, and getting to little or too much is bad. Finding a way to consistently meet our bodies requirements goes a long way to promoting overall good health.
As a bonus, and in addition to resteeming for exposure. We are awarding you a small 10 Steem Power deposit as a thank you for creating quality STEM related postings on Steemit. We hope you will continue to educate us all!
Thank you, I appreciate that!
I wasn't aware of Steem STEM before but now I see it is a great initiative, I love posting about technology and science myself (as you've noticed) so it fits perfectly.
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Guilty of sleeping too much! Thanks for waking me up!