A patient who sleeps 6 to 7 hours may be concerned that she or he is not sleeping long enough, not realizing that 6 to 7 hours is currently the population average. Many people believe that 8 hours of sleep is required for health, but there is little medical basis to recommend sleeping 8 hours or more. For example, a classic study found that long sleepers reported less energy and had more psychopathology than did short sleepers. — Dr. Kripke
We know that sleeping too little can cause poor mental performance. Sleep-deprived night shift workers are responsible for the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown.
But here’s a thought: Can too much sleep be bad for you?
The following is a list of 6 “problems” associated with sleeping 9 or more hours each night.
1 – More sleep correlated with higher risk of death.
Although it’s a common belief that 8 hours of sleep is required for optimal health, a six-year study of more than one million adults ages 30 to 102 has shown that people who get only 6 to 7 hours a night have a lower death rate. Individuals who sleep 8 hours or more, or less than 4 hours a night, were shown to have a significantly increased death rate compared to those who averaged 6 to 7 hours. — see here
2 – Long Sleep and Depression. Depression is linked to both long and short sleep. Most depressed people are at risk of insomnia and sleeping too little, but about 15% sleep too much. This is probably due to lethargy and lack of excitement for life.
3 – More sleep during winter months. Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder (SAD) occurs in many people during the winter months. It is characterized by depression, decreased energy/enthusiasm, decreased sex interest, and increased sleep. It is more pronounced in extreme latitudes. Light and temperature are big factors in controlling our internal body clocks. Winter days are shorter, causing our bodies to “hibernate”. From a physical standpoint, there is no need for the extra sleep during winter. In fact, sleeping more during the winter months further aggravates the symptoms of SAD. SAD is curable, though. You can overcome the symptoms of SAD with a light box or exercise.
4 – Less Energy. Studies have shown that long sleep is associated with decreased energy. Have you ever noticed that a 10 hour sleep can leave you feeling MORE tired than a 7 hour sleep? Truly restorative sleep comes from sleep QUALITY not quantity. Your body tries to compensate poor quality sleep by extending sleep duration. Good sleep quality comes from good sleep habits and lifestyle habits. Excellent sleep quality will leave you feeling refreshed/energetic after only 6 or 7 hours of sleep.
5 – Lack of Exercise. Daily exercise increases your core body temperature, allowing for a larger drop in body temperature at night, which improves sleep quality. Sedentary activity can cause a slight increase in sleep duration.
6 – Poor Diet. Eating habits and sleep habits go hand in hand. A poor diet is usually full of fatty, artificial foods, which sap your energy and make you feel tired. Poor diet means poor energy. Poor energy means more sleep. Furthermore, processed artificial foods are harder to digest. Don’t eat poor foods before bedtime. Why not? Because then more blood and metabolic energy will be allocated to the overworked digestive system instead of the brain during sleep. Your brain could use that extra blood and metabolic energy to improved sleep quality.
Unfortunately, none of these associations really answer the question “Is too much sleep harmful?” If you are completely healthy, then 10 hours of sleep per night might be perfectly fine. The direction of causation in each of these cases is not known.
Most scientists agree that there’s nothing harmful about sleep itself.
Those who sleep more than nine hours have something wrong with them that may be causing the heavy sleep, and leads to their demise. It is not the sleep itself that is harmful. — Sleep researcher Dr. White
Long sleep is usually a symptom of certain lifestyle decisions. It’s important to optimize our lifestyle habits, which will lead to increased sleep quality, more energy, and a — in some cases — a decreased need for sleep.
If you dislike sleeping too much, there may be effective ways to get by on less sleep.
However, I firmly believe that it’s best to start with a healthy attitude toward sleep. Start by learning to appreciate and enjoy a good 10-hour rest (chronic insomniacs would love to get that much sleep once in a while). Don’t force anything — excessive sleep might signal that your body needs to heal itself or recover; trying to cut down on sleep might make underlying problems worse.
But if you are concerned about how much you sleep (either too much or too little) and want that to change, then read over my 40 Sleep Hacks eBook. It’ll give you some ideas on how to improve your sleep quality.
(The eBook is free).
I love sleep.
I certainly agree. The more sleep, the less energy.
my brother was a stroke victim,since then,he sleeps 14-16 hrs.a day…this could help guide him..thanks
This is very helpful, my boyfriend sleeps very long hours and it gets on my nerves now I understand why that is. I’m going to show this to him asap. thanks!
well i sleep alot but i think ima cut down i might die sooner noooo.
oh WOW…
the teachers would always tell the students to get a lot of sleep before a test, but then this says too much sleep can cause problems..
hopefully this doesnt occur after one incident where you slept for 13 hours..
I’ve recently been sleeping 12-18 hours a night, every night. I definitely feel more tired sleeping this long but if I wake up before the 12 hour mark I feel absolutely exhausted and can hardly stand. I’m vegetarian and haven’t been getting the beans/nuts/soy that I usually do, so I’m thinking I might be protein crashing. But I didn’t realize sleeping too much might lead to a higher mortality rate!
I sleep around ten hours, I get more drowsy. Where as I want to become more energized. Therefore I will be concentrating on my lifestyle and other habits.
woow…but when i sleep long it actually makes me feel better.lol ;’)
oooh, my boyfrend sleeps too much either day or night.It really annoys me,i m sure going to show him this right away!
I sleep about 14 hours a day, cos if I set my alarm I’m just too tired to get up. Normally need about 2 hours of alarms before I can get up. but I am tired constantly… it’s annoying…lol.
you sleep 12-18 hours a day james!??!?!!?! wow. thats like 3/4 of the day. your really missing out on life, sleeping over half of it away.
to much sleep can make your heart weak. i have been disabled for almost a year now. i use to love life and the outdoors. the more i sleep the worse i feel and the more depresed i get. i was at my best at 4-6hrs a night. the more i sleep the worse my heart feels. it races over every noies i hear. its really scaring me.
CORRELATION DOESN’T MEAN CAUSATION
The author said it, and I would like to remind those who read this that no one said the sleep caused this.
Awww.. I can’t sleep well! Everytime I wake up.. I get so tired and sleep again.. Then when my fever comes back. I always sleep. But couldn’t sleep well.. I always sleep in the daylight or morning until 8pm and above I can’t sleep well at 8pm until wenever I could sleep.. And I’m still 13 years old! I might die soon.. Everytime I wake up it was just like 4 hrs but it was only 30min! ( I should stop now ) Thanks for the info by the way.
Oh and by the way.. How could you die or when? When you sleep 8 and above. I sleep like 17 hrs above almost everyday since last 5 days ago..
sleeppp
i sleep 11 to 12 hours everyday after i move to college. its true that sleeping too much makes you tire and more sleepy during the day. an also, i agree with that its has something to do with your diet. im eating more artificial food now since i move from my parents house. and i been notice after that my long sleeping habit.
i love sleeping, i can go to bed at 9pm and sleep to 11am the next day.
There is a new book about sleep and diet ect. Ive bought it but not recieved it yet. Its called “Left in the dark” There is a web site with interviews ect.
http://www.leftinthedark.org.uk/news/index.htm
Ive also found book “The wheel of conciousness” very interesting on segmented sleep “The watch” is a caveman type sleep giving greater clarity in waking hours and less overall sleep time.
I saw a statistic saying 90% people with depression have sleep problem also, takling that may be more wholistic than taking synthetic drugs.
If I don’t get at least 9 hours a night I feel exhausted. I don’t believe this study included other factors that affect life span Ex)people who work nights, people who work shift work. I go to bed at nine and wake up at six and I feel good. If I wake up any earlier I just can’t get out of bed. Don’t worry about how much you sleep and by all means don’t try to cut back on your sleep. Go to bed when you’re tired and wake up and get out of bed when YOU feel rested. Not when “experts” tell you that you should. It’s YOUR sleep cycle, YOUR body. Everyone will be different.
i sleep all day … i can even sleep for days straight does that mean theres something wrong wit me.. am i gonna die at an early age =(
i no i get tired by sleeping for abou 11 hrs and yes i am tired but im still fine during the day and how can you die if your resting your body? if it was true then we would have resovled this issue a long time ago. I understand alot of parents want their children to sleep early but also wae up early and that just istnt easy. but if il try to cut down my sleep bu its the time where i get peace
Reduced sleep conditioning! DO IT!
I used to believe the 8 hour thing. I had seen info involving sleeping less and when I got a very demanding job years ago, I looked for more information. It turns out that the brain is able to adapt just like a muscle does. If you consistently sleep 5 hours a night, your brain will get what it needs done during that time. If you insist on sleeping-in on the weekends, then you aren’t serious about it and you need to go back to the playground. NEVER NEVER NEVER SLEEP IN. After a few weeks, you will never want to go back to wasting hours of each day sleeping when you dont need to. By the time you reach age 90, if you slept 8 hours a night, you have slept for a total of 30 years! Bring it down to 5 hours a night and you have gained 11.25 years in waking life. What could you do in that time to make your life better? With 3 extra hours a day you can succeed at a demanding job like I did. You can exercise more… like I do. Read more. Surf the net more. Watch more TV! Ha! Shag more women! LMAO
sleep when i die… it might be a bit sooner though
I love to sleep but i always wake up in the middle of the night! How does this happen??
Well for some odd reason i sleep quite alot not really sure why my eating habits are ok i guess i dont really eat to much bad things if fact sometimes i dont eat at all. maybe i’ll try some of the stuff on here.
During this winter break that we have off from school, I sleep from 10pm to 1pm. I think it’s because I have nothing better to do. School is where all the excitement is happening.. this helped. I’m gonna wake up earlier now.
Is 8 hours of sleep really enough time for your body to recover?
Wow, I just wake up from my 12 hours sleep. Then I read this… That explain why I sleep in class too much! I should start working on sleep for 6-7 hours of sleep everyday to break my old habits. Thanks goodness that I read this. =)
I could sleep for 18 Hours Straight if I did not have a daughter who is two. I feel tired all the time and all I want to do is sleep and never get up. I do feel like my heart is getting weak. I have went to doctors and they can not find anything wrong does this happen to anyone else?
I usually sleep 10 hours a night, and i personally don’t believe it’s bad for your health. A study like the one discussed above (that supposedly linked too much or too little sleep with premature death) doesn’t show causality, because there could be so many lurking variables. In other words, people who slept too much or too little could have other factors in their life (food intake, genetics, carcinogens in the environment, etc.) that were somewhat related to the amount of sleep they got. People should be a lot more worried about what they eat/ how much they exercise, and a lot less worried about sleeping to much/little.
i dont get enough sleep and im worried cus i run track everyday for my highschool and ive been getting 4 hours or less each night i’ve had insomia problems in my past but this is the worst its been and i dont know what to do
i love to sleep… but
OMG ! im scared now
coz i sleep 11 or 12 hours a night
and yes when i wake up i feel very tired, i get headache and my body starts hurting.
Well this is really scary for me, I been sleeping alot for a bout a week now but I also think it cause I party to much and for some reason I feel more tire too. Even 14 hours of sleep and I can still go to ben at 10 pm wake up till noon the next day…….
well i think i balance myself out cuz sleep like 3-5 hours during the week then i sleep like 8-12 hours during the weekend..
i dont know what to do i sleep ALL the time! I go to bed at 6 P.M. and sleep till 9 in the morning or later is that wierd? any advice?
Wow this site is amazing. But my issue I’ve been a “12 hour” sleeper since I was baby. I’m still kind of like that when I can I sleep long hours but I tend to feel more energized. I tend to eat pretty healthy and excercise regularly. Is this just a normality or am I just messed up?
I am 13, and I think deppresions got me, I went to a cookout, then later to dinner for my dad’s birthday. I slept in the booth, went home and slept for another 14 hours….
ahjaja i sleep 14 hours if i don’t i am cranky 2 bad if i die sooner we all have to die jajaja
What about peace of mind? Should we not try to sort out our life’s problems first and then go to sleep with a quiet mind? We all need to follow the best advice on diet and exercise of course but it seems to me natural that if we practiced to be relaxed mentally and physically at bedtime, then nature would see to it that we would sleep soundly and wake up naturally when the body had had all the sleep it needed.
Thank you everyone for your comments.
I want to emphasize something I pointed out in the article: Sleeping for 10 or more hours can be good. If your body is telling you it needs 10 hours of sleep, then it can be good to listen to it.
I personally get about 6 or 7 hours of sleep now, but will give myself a 10-hour rest once in a while as well.
Einstein was supposedly a long sleeper (9-10 hours).
There are a couple points to this article:
1 – if you naturally only need about 6-7 hours of sleep, then there’s probably no need to worry about it.
2 – if you feel like you need 10 or more hours of sleep, then if you’re young (less than 22 years old), then I say sleep that much. Your developing brain will benefit from it.
3 – if you need 10 or more hours of sleep but are older (say, over 30), then there might be an underlying cause, in which case living a healthier lifestyle might decrease your sleep need into a more “normal” range.
I think it’s important to not try and force your body too far outside its comfort zone. If you sleep excessively, it might be your body just doing what it needs to do, and it might be temporary.
If excessive sleep is getting too much in the way of your life, then read over this website and download my (free) eBook to get some ideas on how to improve your sleep quality.
Best,
Jeff
Umm i get between 14 to 18 hours of sleep every night, i almost never eat eat right but my body functions completely fine and i dont feel deprived of energy. So this article pretty much just confused me.