You probably know that sleep is necessary to maintain your health. Humans need to recharge, and sleep allows us to do that. Most people are familiar with the side effects of a lack of sleep and have a lot of practice yawning through the day and chugging coffee just to keep their eyes open. But what happens when you get too much sleep? There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, and it definitely applies to catching too many z’s.
Findings have shown that people who sleep more than eight hours every night are twice as likely to have severe chest pain, and the likelihood of having coronary artery disease increases by 10 percent. The risk of stroke also goes up by 46 percent if you are a habitual long sleeper. While those seem like pretty good reasons to set your alarm, it’s not necessarily the oversleeping itself that increases your risk of illness. Instead, the need for additional sleep might be pointing to an underlying health problem.
“Oversleeping is not harmful in and of itself, but it is a sign that you may be sleeping ineffectively, or that there is another problem requiring more sleep,” Dr. Carl Bazil told Reader’s Digest. “There are also otherwise normal people who are ‘long sleepers’ — they function perfectly well if they get 9 or 10 hours but are sleepy on less. It’s still important, however, to check for other possibilities.”
There’s also a correlation between obesity and sleeping too much. Again, though, it’s not clear if sleeping too long is what causes people to gain weight. “What we do know is that as people get more obese, they’re likely to be long sleepers,” Dr. Michael Irwin told Prevention. “And if you’re a long sleeper, you’re more likely to be obese.”
Other problems associated with sleeping too much are an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and not being able to think clearly. Sleeping a lot might also be a sign of depression.
While there’s nothing wrong with sleeping in on the weekends, your best bet is to stick to a steady sleep schedule — especially if you’re regularly fatigued. “This helps to regulate your body’s clock and could help you fall asleep and stay asleep for the night,” Dr. Nagamalar Raju told Piedmont Healthcare.
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