I am pretty sure we can all agree that sleep is a very beautiful thing, but can getting too much sleep be bad for you? We do need a good night’s sleep in order to stay healthy, but how much is too much? The target amount of sleep differs for everybody, there are several factors that have to be taken into consideration: age, activity level, general health, and lifestyle habits (Ratini, p.1). Now we all have had to pull an all-nighter at some point during the school year and when we finally knock out, we tend to sleep a little longer than usual. When I looked deeper into this topic I found that oversleeping in some cases can lead to serious illnesses.
An article by CNN states that, “oversleeping can hurt your health.” (Kaplan) Oversleeping can increase the risk of getting diabetes, obesity, and headaches. A study posted on WebMD noted that, “people who slept for nine or 10 hours every night were 21% more likely to become obese over a six-year period that were people who slept between seven and eight hours.” (Ratini, p.2) One may think that there has to be more to obesity than just oversleeping, which is why this particular study took both diet and exercise into account. The result remained unchanged proving that too much sleep plays a major role in obesity. As far as the risk for diabetes and headaches, there are contributing outside variables that need to be taken into consideration. Diabetes can result from a persons diet or even their genes. Headaches on the other hand have many causes such as, not getting enough sleep or from hearing a loud noise, the list goes on.
Although is you are oversleeping, there is no need to jump to the quick assumption that you have a disorder or are suffering from and illness. Otherfactors that contribute to one oversleeping are alcohol, certain medications, or just the need for more sleep (Ratini, p.1). Occasional sleeping does not seem to pose much of a threat, but when excessive the opinion of a doctor may be needed to ensure there are no underlying issues present.
Picture courtesy deliveringhappiness.com
Works Cited
Kaplan, Jana (2013). Are you sleeping too much? Retrieved from www.cnn.com
Ratini, Melinda (2012) Oversleeping Side Effects: Is Too Much Sleep Harmful? Retrieved from www.webmd.com
I absolutely love sleeping. Sleeping too much is a very common thing in my world. After reading your blog, I’m a bit concerned about my health. Out of the three things you said in your blog, diabetes, obesity, and headaches, I believe headache is the most common symptom. According to your blog, you mentioned many third variables that causes over sleeping. In my opinion, another very important third variable is stress. Especially in college, once the stress builds, I just want to give up on everything and go to sleep. According to the article below, it stated that anxiety causes drowsiness. However, there are many ways to overcome the drowsiness, for example, exercise, healthy eating, light therapy, etc. Good job on your blog post!
http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/drowsiness
This is also the first time that I have heard that too much sleep can be bad for someone. Even though I have never heard of this opinion before it makes sense to me. I think that when people sleep for to long the become lazy and then they end up having no motivation to get anything done. I can also see how sleeping longer can lead to obesity because no food is being burned off.
This is a very interesting article. I have never heard that there could be detrimental effects to sleeping too much. I myself try to get around 9 hours every night. I do notice however that when I sleep for about 10-11 hours I am so drowsy, that I tend to lie around and be lazy the whole day because I cannot fully wake up. I agree with Alex that the main reason obesity is a factor in oversleeping is because when you sleep for longer periods of time, you’re window to be active is much smaller. That is not to say that everyone who oversleeps has a large chance of becoming obese. In fact, some people already have illnesses that make them oversleep, such as anxiety, depression, and heart disease. Too much sleep can cause these illnesses to become worse. According to WebMD , sleep deprivation can act as an antidepressant to those suffering from depression and anxiety.
I agree that sleep is a beautiful thing. In fact, I enjoying waking up sometimes cause I know that later I can go back to sleep later. Sometimes after sleeping for a long time you feel drowsy and it takes a long time for your body to actually wake up. From past experience, when I sleep for closer to 8 hours a night waking up is easier than when I sleep for 10 or 11. I could definitely see how doing this every night for an extended period of time could have a more significant effect because if your body gets used to this it could cause your body to get used to being really slow when you wake up which might take away from the normal daily functions of your body. With all that being said, too much excess of pretty much anything can be harmful, even the most basic human needs such as water and food. I don’t plan on altering my sleep pattern just because I enjoy sleep so much but it interesting to think about.
This is definitely the first time I have ever heard of too much sleep being bad for you, so immediately it piqued my interest. I do agree with you on the fact that there is a lot of chance and possible confounding variables in this study. The fact that it states it can cause obesity I think is just because people who sleep more have less time during the day to be active. Oversleeping has many possible negative outcomes, but to truly find out the real facts, a large randomized control study must be done to rule out any possibilities of chance or third party variables.