The more sleep, the better, may be the obvious answer to most people. What they don’t realize is that oversleeping can actually be harmful. On one hand, it’s true that a good night’s sleep is essential for your health, but oversleeping is actually known to be linked to multiple health problems like diabetes, heart disease, and increased risk of death. According to experts, adults should sleep an average of seven and nine hours per night. Anything over that is considered oversleeping. According to a survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “People over the age of 15 are snoozing an average of 8 hours and 43 minutes each night.” An extra 43 minutes may seem harmless, until you see the problems associated with sleeping too much.
Oversleeping is actually a medical disorder, known as hypersomnia. Hypersomnia means excessive sleepiness. It is a condition in which a person has trouble staying awake during the day. People with this condition can fall asleep at any time during the day. According to the national sleep foundation, “Up to 40% of people have some symptoms of hypersomnia from time to time.” Treatments for hypersomnia include different medications.
One medical problem linked to oversleeping, is obesity. Sleeping too much could also make you weigh too much. In a study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed 87,000 people and found that 26 percent of people who slept nine hours or more per night were obese. By sleeping more you are being less active. This gives the body less time to burn off its energy which otherwise gets stored as fat. Another health problem caused by oversleeping is Heart Disease. Findings from The Nurses’ Health Study involving nearly 72,000 women, found that “Those who overslept had a 38 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease than those who didn’t.” Oversleeping can also lead to other mental health problems such as depression. 15% of people with depression oversleep.
Works Cited
death.http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/physical-side-effects-oversleeping
http://www.medicinenet.com/hypersomnia/article.htm
http://www.symptomfind.com/health/effects-of-oversleeping/
http://www.businessinsider.com/heath-hazards-of-oversleeping-2012-10
http://mental.healthguru.com/video/depression-over-sleeping
Oversleeping is a big problem to me. While in college, my sleep schedule is very messed up. I would sleep about five to six hours a day and sometimes I would take naps in between classes. During the recent thanksgiving break, I went crazy with my sleep; I would sleep about 10 or 11 hours a day. If my parents don’t wake me up, I believe I can sleep forever. After reading your blog, I believe I just put myself in risk for many medical disorders. Who knew sleeping too much could actually be a problem! Based on the study you described, I don’t find the results very convincing. Even though the study group is very large, chance and third variables are still a possibility in this experiment. For example, what if some people in the study have faster metabolisms than others? Also, some people may have genetic diseases that can lead to heart diseases. With these possibilities, we can’t assume too much sleep harms our health.
I found this topic very interesting, however I’m a bit skeptical when it comes to these statistics. According to your sources’ numbers, I have been oversleeping most of my life, but the times in which I slept for the hours you recommended, I’ve been exhausted and unable to focus. I’m just very shocked to know that my sleeping habits, which seem to be good in the short run, can be so detrimental to my health in the long run.
This topic hit home for me because I often end up sleeping for 12 hours on the weekend, and if I do not have class until 2:30 will sleep for an extended period of time as well. I have to agree with a lot of the points you are making because when I sleep for an extended period of time, I often stay in bed for most of the day and will not do anything productive. On the contrary when I wake up early, I noticed I become very productive and actually feel anxiety when I am not being productive. I was not aware of the multitude of health risks that went along with oversleeping like obesity, diabetes, and even health risks that could lead to death. I understand being less active isn’t healthy, but I when I sleep longer I am less likely to want to eat. But this topic definitely made me reevaluate my habits, and now I am more aware of oversleeping and might start making an effort to wake up earlier. I looked up more on this topic and found more symptoms that go along with over sleeping. http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/physical-side-effects-oversleeping?page=2
I truly was curious about this topic and i am going to have to agree with Kevin as through personal experience I find it hard to believe some of the statistics. The amount of sleep within the study i feel is questionable because as a student I know i was personally not getting eight hours of sleep. Other than that i was surprised to see how the correlation between different amounts of sleep really impact the body. I was shocked to read how there was actually a relatively large impact with such seemingly small amounts of sleep.
This topic was very informative for me. It is interesting to read that extra sleep can cause obesity due to the lack of movement. I have always personally felt like I eat less on the weekends when I get to sleep in, because I often end up only eating two meals for the day instead of three. In addition, I have always felt the days I nap usually prevent me from snacking out of boredom as well. I will have to start thinking about this study though more next time regarding my food intake, because your article made a good point that you are losing out on movement time and possible exercise.
More sleep is bad for you?? That’s something that I’ve never heard of in my life. Something that really intrigued me is when you said that most kids above the age of 15 average about 8 hours and 43 minutes of sleep a night. I find that hard to believe considering that a majority of kids in college or high school claim that they are sleep deprived. I actually wrote a blog about sleep deprivation. But this is really cool. It’s something that completely goes the opposite way of what I wrote about with sleep deprivation. I didn’t know you can get medically damaged through too much sleep. Thanks for the alarming blog post!
I didn’t know that even an extra 43 minutes could have such a negative impact. I knew oversleeping wasn’t necessarily a good thing, but I had no idea it could cause such negative health problems. I suffer from depression, and am definitely a part of the 15% that oversleep. Here’s a helpful article listing ways to help people stop oversleeping! http://a-sleep.com/1563/how-to-stop-oversleeping/
I really enjoyed this post. I did some research on the similar topic and was intrigued to discover that over sleeping is actually detrimental to your health and sleep cycle. i was always interested with the science behind the length of naps. Who would have thought that a 30 minute nap would do more for you then a 3 hour nap. funny how the human body works. thanks for a good post.