Healthytalk8 Excessive sleeping or oversleeping throughout the day or over 9 hours in a night, can happen for many reasons.
It is believed that an average man should sleep for 7 to 8 hours so that they are charged for the next day.
Both excessive sleeping and does not get enough sleep can lead to many health issues include – insomnia, dementia, Irritability, etc.
Without enough sleep, you may feel low and unable to focus, on the other hand, too much sleep can also affect your health.
So today’s topic will tell you about oversleeping which is healthy or not healthy.
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Is excessive sleeping is healthy or not healthy? what does the research say?
Contents
Research has shown that long sleep duration is a key factor for sleep apnea, which is allied with higher mortality (1).
Other research carefully indicates that two factors are highly associated with oversleeping such as depression and low socioeconomic.
Excessive sleeping is not healthy at all, even it can occur in many people which leads to many health issues including:
High mortality
Some studies have shown the effect of long sleep on mortality and reported that long sleepers have higher mortality risks.
Habitual sleep patterns can also impact our ability to infer the impact of sleep duration on mortality.
Evidence shows that higher mortality risk has consistently been found even stronger than the associations with short sleep.
Diabetes
Sleep disorders are significantly more common in persons with diabetes as compared to those without diabetes (2)
When our blood sugar level reached a high stage, this refers to diabetes, which causes a lot of complications in the body.
When someone has diabetes, their body’s ability to produce insulin is completely stopped.
NOTE: Insulin is a hormone made in our pancreas, which helps the body to maintain body sugar levels.
Chronic short sleep duration (<6 hours) has been allied with an increased risk of diabetes (3) (4).
Several studies have shown that poor sleep habits are a greater risk for type II diabetes. WebMD says
Heart disease
However, sleep conditions can also hurt your heart health, including sleep apnea and insomnia (5).
Researchers tell that people who sleep more than the recommended amount may cause heart disease because they have underlying health issues that cause them to sleep longer.
According to Science Daily, people who sleep 7 hours a night are associated with more favorable heart health.
Obesity
Studies on children showed that short sleep duration is allied with an increased risk of being overweight and obese (6) (7).
Researchers found that the women who worked a rotating night shift for long, have a greater risk of developing diabetes and obesity.
According to Harvard Few studies in adults have shown that excessive sleep is allied to a higher risk of obesity.
There is much evidence proof showing that obesity has other several negative health effects on health which include:
- increase the risk of Cancers
- promote type II diabetes
- low self-esteem, and confidence
- increase hypertension
- heart attack
- lower bone density
- coronary Artery Disease
Headache
Getting too much sleep is actually a common headache trigger.
Headache is a very common condition that many people across the world experience at some point in their life.
Researchers believe oversleeping and headaches have been linked to where certain neurotransmitters in the brain, including serotonin, are triggered.
Studies have reported an allied between EDS and headache, showing that migraineurs experience more excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) than non-migraineurs, with EDS.
However, there are some other reasons for headaches which include:
- Stress, Tension
- During Pre-menstrual cycle also happen
- Lack of sleep
- Stomach gas, when you do not release the gas, so this goes upwards to the brain, leads head pain
- Skipping eating food for a long-time, also lead to Weakness.
- Anger
- dehydration
- Drinking Excessive alcohol and smoking
- Hunger, lead to anger
- If Caffeine and tea consumption are high
- Cold, and flu also lead to headache
Some medical conditions can also lead to head pain
- High blood pressure
- Tumors, Bleeding, and any infection in the brain
- Inflammation in veins
- Temporal arteries
Depression
Research conducted in 2008, shows that women are more likely to notice oversleeping with depression, especially under 30 of age.
However, sleep disorders like insomnia are also allied with depression than oversleeping, and oversleeping can make this situation worse.
Several studies have shown a higher rate of depressed patients among long sleepers compared to normal sleepers (8) (9).
According to health. Cleveland clinic’s excessive sleeping is a possible symptom of depression and it doesn’t cause depression.
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Effect on mental health
According to MNT too little or too much sleep has a negative impact on cognitive ability but does not cause short-term memory.
It’s also been shown that not getting enough sleep is linked to cognitive decline and conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Research published by the Washington University School of Medicine has shown that too little sleep and oversleeping may also be linked with cognitive decline.
How much sleeping is healthy and not healthy?
It is recommended that healthy adults should take 7 to 9 hours an average sleep per night.
Age also plays a vital role in sleep, research shows a connection between age and the required number of hours for good sleep.
Each person has individual needs for sleep.
As we grow from baby to older we required different sleep hours for a healthy body for example
NOTE: A Toddler should sleep 11 to 14 hours, an adult takes 7 to 9 hours of sleep, and older adults (above 65) 7 to 8 hours a day.
This number will be changed if a person is sick, stressed, or extremely active and need more sleep to recharge.
But if a healthy adult person sleeps 9 to 12 hours a day, it is not considered healthy.
why I am sleeping too much?
There are many reasons why you are sleeping too much which include:
- Sleep deprivation
- certain medications
- sleep apnea
- medical conditions such as diabetes, obesity, depression, anxiety, etc
- Hypothyroidism
- chronic pain
Oversleeping is actually caused by hypersomnia a medical disorder.
Hypersomnia is a sleep disorder that causes you to be excessively sleepy during the day even after a good night’s sleep (10).
People with hypersomnia can experience these symptoms including – low energy, anxiety, lack of focus, etc
But not all excessive sleepers have a sleep disorder, there are other causes of oversleeping which include:
- Excessive alcohol use
- laziness
BOTTOM LINE
Many research has shown that oversleeping is not healthy at all, and it also causes many other health conditions.
However, too low sleep can also be allied with health issues, which occur due to sleep disorders like sleep apnea, and insomnia.
