What happens if you sleep a lot, is long sleep harmful to the human body, why is it bad?

It is still widely believed that eight to nine hours of sleep at night is the only possible norm necessary to maintain health. However, objections began to appear. What happens if you sleep a lot? It has been found that excess sleep (8-9-10 hours) causes the same damage to the body as lack of sleep.

It is known that a one-year-old child sleeps 12-13 hours a day. To maintain vital functions, sleepy rest is more important than food: a person can go hungry or eat a very limited diet for two or six months, but he can go without rest for about three to four days.

Almost 19 sleepless days is the unbroken record of the American Robert McDonald, recorded by the Guinness Book of Records. Already after three to five days of continuous wakefulness, a person begins to experience psychophysiological deviations, gradually increasing and after a certain period of time becoming irreversible.

Sleepy rest is physiologically necessary: ​​during the rest period, many processes take place that ensure effective life activity. During rest, information moves from short-term memory to long-term memory.

The cerebral cortex processes the events of the day and establishes associations with existing experience. The metabolic process is fine-tuned and unnecessary substances are eliminated.

Research on long sleep

Is it harmful to sleep a lot? Recent studies on the optimal duration of deep rest have found that 7–7.5 hours of sleep per day is quite enough for normal well-being. Regarding 8 hours of deep sleep, scientists say that it is not only useless, but can also be harmful to health

A similar conclusion was made based on a study conducted among people of different ages. Participants assessed their well-being several times a day - in the morning and several times in the afternoon. It turned out that men and women who had 8 hours (or more) of sleep were significantly more likely to complain about difficulty concentrating, memory difficulties, and headaches than those whose rest lasted 7–7.5 hours.

In addition, the researchers found that prolonged sleep rest and early mortality have a direct correlation.

Norms for different ages

The question arises: how long should we sleep for biological processes to proceed normally and our body to fully recover? The answer depends on many factors: number of years, general health, lifestyle. Among them, the determining factor is, of course, age.

Modern research identifies the following sleep norms for people of different ages.

As can be seen from the table, as a person grows older, he needs less time for proper rest. Starting from the age of 18, when the physiology is already fully formed, 7-9 hours are enough to get a good night's sleep. And this continues until old age, when you can rest the least.

Causes of drowsiness

Even a healthy person sometimes really wants to take a nap longer, lie in bed. If such a desire appears occasionally, it’s okay. Constantly sleeps longer than 9 hours? There is reason to be concerned about your health and start looking for the cause of such drowsiness.

The drowsy state may be explained by the presence of a specific pathology, for example, sleep apnea syndrome or hypersomnia. The diagnosis of diabetes mellitus and thyroid dysfunction cannot be excluded. People who lead an overly active lifestyle, undergo heavy physical activity, and are very tired sleep for a long time and do not wake up.

Taking certain medications (antihistamines, analgesics) causes drowsiness. The same goes for alcohol. In the winter-autumn period, many people tend to sleep due to lack of sunlight. Women sleep for a long time during pregnancy.

Health problems

In addition to taking antihistamines (against allergies), tranquilizers and other sedative (calming) drugs, the reasons may be:

• hormones. In winter and in cloudy weather, there is a desire to quickly go to bed due to excess melatonin; diabetes mellitus and hypothyroidism (deficiency of hormones produced by the thyroid gland, expressed in hair loss, swelling on the face, legs and arms, brittle nails, constant headache, dry skin, constipation);
• cardiovascular diseases. When blood pressure drops, cells receive less oxygen, which causes a slowdown in biological processes. In young people (20–30 years old), hypotension is usually considered physiological and is recognized as a normal variant;
• traumatic brain injury. Due to the presence of edema and impaired blood supply, less oxygen reaches certain lobes of the brain, which causes a desire to sleep;
• apnea. Due to respiratory arrest, a person wakes up at night and gets up exhausted in the morning;
• Iron-deficiency anemia. An insufficient number of red blood cells and hemoglobin can lead to oxygen starvation of tissues and organs - hypoxia, which is accompanied by fatigue, dizziness, shortness of breath, increased heart rate;
• restless legs syndrome. The leg muscles contract during sleep almost imperceptibly for the patient, that is, he does not wake up, but the duration of the deep phase is disrupted;
• cervical osteochondrosis. Caused by obesity, sedentary work or spinal curvature, it may also be accompanied by pain in the neck, shoulder, collarbone, blurred vision, drowsiness;
• other diseases. This group includes bronchial asthma, narcolepsy with sudden uncontrollable attacks of falling asleep, idiopathic hypersomnia, epilepsy and other diseases.

In all these cases, only a narrow specialist will help: an allergist, immunologist, endocrinologist or a doctor of another specialty.

Possible consequences of too much sleep

The researchers concluded: sleeping a lot is harmful. Excessive rest is harmful to health. What exactly is the danger of too much sleep?

Diabetes

Rest that is too long, like rest that is too short, is a risk factor for the development of this pathology, according to the observations of scientists.

Obesity

Survey data shows that people who sleep 9 hours or more are about 20% more likely to become obese over the next six years compared to those who sleep 7–7.5 hours. However, the same goes for sleep deprivation!

Both lack of sleep and excessive sleep duration negatively affect a person’s body weight

Morning headache

A long sleepy rest does not guarantee freshness in the morning, but often creates a feeling of a heavy head, a headache. This is especially clearly observed on holidays and weekends, when it becomes possible not to jump out of bed, but to lie down longer. A similar situation occurs in a person who allows himself the luxury of daytime sleep, which leads to disruption of night rest.

Sleeping more means worse migraines

Excessive sleep can push the development of migraines, although sleep for headaches is considered a remedy. Only moderate sleep will bring benefits. Individuals who tend to lie down longer are 30–35% more likely to be at risk for migraines.

Spinal pain

Previously, sleeping and resting in a horizontal position were considered a remedy for pain in the spine. Now doctors prescribe daily physical activity, which brings much more benefit to the spine: the latter in modern man suffers from a passive lifestyle.

Depressive states

Although depression is usually accompanied by insomnia, about 15% of patients experience excessive sleepiness and sleep for too long. Excessive sleep aggravates their illness.

Stroke

As a result of many years of research, scientists have concluded that sleeping more than 8–9 hours is fraught with an increase in the likelihood of developing a stroke by 48%. And lack of sleep adds only 18% to the risk of stroke!

Heart pathologies

The relationship between heart disease and long sleep was studied among a female population (72,000 women). The susceptibility to developing heart pathology in those women whose sleep lasted 9–10 hours was 39% higher compared to women who slept 7.5–8 hours. The nature of this dependence has not yet been established.

Alzheimer's comes at night

It is not yet possible to make such a statement with one hundred percent probability, but relevant studies are already being carried out and have yielded the first results. According to them, people who are prone to excessive sleep from a young age suffer from Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia in old age approximately 2 times more often than those who did not have such a habit.

Shorter life

Sleeping for a long time automatically shortens the period of daytime wakefulness. Purely arithmetically, sleep lovers live less. But in fact, their life expectancy is shorter than that of people who sleep little. The reason has not yet been clarified, but experts have proven that people who have a low status or suffer from depression usually sleep for a long time.

Effective fight

We tell you what to do if you want to sleep and coffee no longer helps.

• Ensure healthy sleep. Follow a routine: go to bed and get up at the same time, close windows and curtains tightly at night to eliminate noise from the street and bright lights, give up surfing the Internet in the evening, buy a comfortable mattress and the right pillow.
• Love natural light. Open your curtains in the morning to let in sunlight, spend less time in dimly lit rooms and spend more time outside. This will prevent the production of the “sleepy” hormone melatonin during daylight hours.
• Exercise regularly or sign up for a fitness class. It is enough to devote 15 minutes to a light warm-up, and you will be energized for the whole day. We advise you to create your own exercise program that you will enjoy doing so that the habit of exercising will develop faster.
• Drink more. Low energy and fatigue are often caused by dehydration, even if you are not thirsty, so it is recommended to drink more water after exercise and in hot weather.
• Eat right. If you often catch yourself thinking: “I want to sleep all the time,” reconsider your diet. Lack of vitamins, an unbalanced diet, refusal of breakfast, overeating, as well as a lack of calories due to diet, negatively affect your well-being.
• Ensure a healthy microclimate in your apartment or office. Monitor humidity, temperature and carbon dioxide levels in the air. Ventilate the room more often or simply install a fresh air ventilation system with an air purification function.
• Listen to dance music and massage your earlobes. Incendiary movements accompanied by modern melodies will help you quickly cheer up, and the impact on biologically active points will relieve you from drowsiness.
• Sleep at lunchtime. If you lack sleep, 10–40 additional minutes of sleep during the day will help restore concentration and relieve fatigue, but you shouldn’t sleep long on weekends - it’s impossible to get enough sleep.
• See your doctor. If the above measures do not help, make an appointment with a therapist. After a comprehensive examination and diagnostics (blood tests are taken, ultrasound, MRI, computed tomography and other studies are prescribed), he will help you find the cause and refer you to a specialized specialist. Do not self-medicate and do not let the problem take its course.

Any disorder prevents you from living a full life. Look for the causes of drowsiness and fight them without pity! High-quality healthy sleep will have a positive impact on your well-being, performance and will give you a great mood, and will help you create a comfortable microclimate in the bedroom, nursery, living room and any other room.

Author: Kristina Dulneva

Weekend getaway

On the long-awaited weekend, they decide to sleep for the whole week - until lunch. The next work week everything repeats itself. The cycle of “lack of sleep - excess sleep” becomes a loop, and it is very difficult to break out of it. Such a “regime” causes significant damage to health: strong fluctuations in sleep duration are unacceptable!

Traditionally, people do not get enough sleep on weekdays when they are forced to get up early to get to work.

Is it worth getting enough sleep in reserve?

We live in an era of post-industrial information society, when there is absolutely not enough time. Many people begin to cheat and, say, sleep for the future on weekends, so that they can then immerse themselves in intense work to the maximum on weekdays.

However, it will not be possible to deceive nature. This method will have an effect, but in the very short term - it will not allow you to fall asleep at the upcoming important event. It’s definitely not worth practicing it on an ongoing basis - it disrupts your biorhythm and has a detrimental effect on your well-being.

The main reasons why you cannot sleep for a long time are related to the needs of the body. Excessive deep rest takes away energy, leads to specific lethargy, weakness, apathy, and provokes the development of diseases. Watch your sleep so that your life is rich, fruitful and filled with positive emotions.

Is a day's rest harmful?

For a long time it was believed that it was useful. Although no large-scale studies have examined the beneficial effects of daytime naps. For example, it is unclear whether sleeping during the day can reduce the likelihood of various diseases or have a positive effect on life expectancy.

How to get enough sleep quickly?

The only thing that has been reliably revealed is that a short rest in the daytime can strengthen the immune system, increase labor productivity and improve mood.

There is a kind of reboot of the body against the background of high daily stress, both physical and emotional. You should rest for about 1.5 hours - this is the duration of 1 cycle of normal sleep.

After all, night and day rest do not differ from each other in structure, they have the same stages. It’s just that the duration and number of these stages are different. During the day, against the background of reduced levels of the hormone melatonin and surrounding stimuli (sound, light), more superficial stages of sleep occur and fewer deep ones. It is also possible to reduce the speed of falling asleep.

In addition, daytime sleep should begin at a certain period of time. So, if you allow yourself to switch off at the moment of decrease in your activity (for larks and night owls this is a different time), then waking up will become unpleasant - with a feeling of a heavy head and a feeling of lethargy.

You should not lie down “for a minute” after sunset: a short nap at this time will be accompanied by the production of melatonin and will therefore disrupt subsequent night sleep.

Why do pregnant women want to sleep?

Hypersomnia during pregnancy deserves special mention. Many people wonder what causes increased sleepiness in expectant mothers, and whether it is beneficial for them to sleep for a long time, including during the day. There are several main reasons.

First, pregnant women, especially in the early months, experience significant physiological changes. A lot of energy and effort is spent on this reorganization.

Since the process is very important for the development of the fetus, the body suggests that the mother switch to “economy mode”.

Secondly, hormones begin to play in pregnant women. Among other things, the amount of progesterone increases, preparing a woman for pregnancy. Its growth leads to lethargy, absent-mindedness and increased drowsiness.

Thirdly, expectant mothers often experience difficulties with nighttime rest: difficulty falling asleep, early awakening, frequent interruptions of sleep to go to the toilet - all this leads to a drowsy state during the daytime.

The main conclusion is this: resting for a long time for pregnant women is not only normal, but also useful.

Sleep well

It is clear that even with average norms of sleep duration, each individual has his own optimal duration of night rest, time of going to bed and waking up. For some, six hours of nightly rest is enough, while others sleep all eight. Larks jump up at 4.30 in the morning, and owls wake up at eleven o'clock.

Sometimes a person cannot fall asleep, even if he has received sufficient physical activity during the day and is very tired. A state of overexcitation of the nervous system sets in, in which it is impossible to fall asleep at midnight, the head hurts, and getting up in the morning is accompanied by a feeling of weakness and lethargy.

According to somnologists, sleep normally occurs in about 15 minutes. To speed up this process, you need to follow the rules of hygiene: properly ventilate the bedroom, do not drink coffee, tea and other invigorating drinks before going to bed at night, and do not smoke.

Constant lethargy, daytime sleepiness, and excessive sleep at night may indicate the presence of a serious pathology. If these signs do not disappear for a long time, it is better to seek medical help.

Insomnia is as harmful as sleeping too much

How to get rid of constant drowsiness and the habit of sleeping a lot?

In rare cases, a person himself can determine the reason why he constantly wants to sleep, so people who begin to notice drowsiness that was unusual for them before should not put off visiting a doctor. An examination by a therapist and a neurologist will help determine whether drowsiness is a symptom of a more serious disease or pathological process in the brain, and if pathology is detected, eliminate it at an early stage.

In cases where excessive sleepiness is caused by psychological or external reasons, the following recommendations can help get rid of the habit of sleeping a lot:

1. 
   Set a sleep schedule and stick to it strictly

   – go to bed and get out of bed at a strictly defined time, not giving in to the temptation to “lie down for another 5 minutes,” and also give up the habit of sleeping during the day
2. Eat right and consume as many vitamins as possible to provide your body with all the elements necessary for normal functioning.
3. Dedicate time to active recreation - sports, walks in the fresh air, travel, etc., since it is precisely this type of recreation that allows a person to strengthen his body and at the same time “unload” the nervous system
4. Plan your every day in advance and in detail and strictly adhere to the plan - this simple measure will help you take control of your life and avoid a situation in which you will be tempted to “lie down and take a nap for a couple of hours, since there is nothing to do anyway.”
5. Find an interesting activity for which you would like to wake up and get out of bed early.

If these recommendations do not help or a person simply cannot find the strength to adhere to them, he needs the help of a psychotherapist. In some cases, when the cause of excessive sleep is severe stress or deep depression, a person will not be able to get rid of the habit of sleeping a lot on his own, since he simply has neither the motivation nor the internal resources to do so. In such situations, only a specialist can help solve the problem, and often he will use not only non-medicinal, but also medicinal treatment methods.

How to test yourself

Ideally, each person should determine their own optimal duration of rest. This can be done through the following experiment, carried out over three days. It’s better during vacation, so that the time in the morning is not occupied with any activities.

• You should give up the alarm clock.
• You need to reduce your alcohol and caffeine intake before starting the experiment.
• You should not use smartphones, tablets and similar things 1-2 hours before bedtime.

When you wake up in the morning (without an alarm), you need to write down how many hours you slept at night. Then during the day you need to record in writing how you feel. If you feel cheerful and collected, then this number of hours of sleep is enough for your body.

Drowsiness and fatigue indicate lack of sleep or excess sleep. Therefore, the next day you need to reduce your sleep, and on the third day, on the contrary, increase it. And do not forget to describe your condition and sensations, as well as assumptions about why this happens. In this way, it is easy to determine your own optimal time for deep rest.

Treatment of hypersomnia

The fight against sleep disorder begins with treating the disease that caused it. At

idiopathic hypersomnia, narcolepsy and in other cases where complete recovery is not possible, therapy should be aimed at reducing symptoms and improving the person’s quality of life.

Your doctor may prescribe stimulants to combat excessive daytime sleepiness, and in some cases, antidepressants. Dosages and medications are selected individually.

For any forms and causes of the disease, the patient is shown a special regimen:

1. You should try to go to bed at the same time.
2. It is advisable to limit the duration of night sleep to 9 hours.
3. You need to organize 1 or 2 naps during the day, the duration of which will be determined by the doctor. Most often it is 45 minutes.
4. It is necessary to avoid alcohol and heavy food in the evening.
5. Night shift work is highly discouraged.

Recommendations from experts

There has always been an opinion that you need to sleep well for peace of mind. Ancient doctors claimed that sleep is a “little death” and advised to go to bed with a calm soul, and then the morning “resurrection” will be joyful and cheerful.

Modern doctors, when collecting anamnesis, find out from patients not only the duration, but also the quality of sleep.

The three most detrimental sleep disorders to your health are:

• sleepless nights;
• different bedtimes;
• interrupted sleep.

Nights without sleep

Insomnia has a bad effect on the body. One sleepless night - and the body’s recovery after it will last for two weeks, according to somnologists.

"Roller coaster"

This is what experts call a lifestyle where the time of going to bed is different every day - sometimes at 10 p.m., sometimes at one in the morning, sometimes at three. From a physiological point of view, this is very bad: during night sleep, certain hormones are produced, and due to the disruption of the regime, strong fluctuations in this process are possible. The result is a wide range of pathologies, from excess weight gain to high blood pressure.

Intermittent sleep

Take a nap for an hour, then another two - this is how young parents and students sleep during the session. Such a regime gradually undermines the psyche and causes significant damage to health. In general, the daily norm of deep rest for an adult is 6–9 hours.

There cannot be exact numbers here. All people are different, and the phenomenon of sleep is associated not only with physiology, but also with the psychology of the individual. Phlegmatic people sleep long and calmly, while excitable choleric people get by with shorter sleep.

Rest no more than 7 hours a day is the key to active longevity, without dementia and serious illnesses

According to Russian somnologists, systematic sleep disturbances, such as periodic sleepless nights, fitful sleep, and a tendency to sleep “for future use” or to compensate for a week’s lack of sleep, are dangerous to health. As a result, there may be surges in blood pressure, an increased likelihood of vascular thrombosis and gradual muscle atrophy.

Overwork and stress

During exam periods, before an important meeting or when changing jobs, we usually sleep poorly and feel increased excitability. Once the stress passes, the body needs to calm down and recover, and the best way is deep, healthy sleep.

Like mental work, physical fatigue after hard training, participating in a marathon, planting a garden or other stress makes you want to sleep. In this case, it is enough to rest well, the body will recover itself.

The most important

To never experience sleep disorders, you need to lead a normal lifestyle. Before going to bed, do not be tempted by a cup of coffee or a glass of something stronger. Ventilate the bedroom properly and maintain a temperature of 18–20°C. It is beneficial to get adequate physical activity throughout the day. You can use various relaxation techniques.

Let all everyday difficulties remain in the outside world, and the horrors of news broadcasts can be seen the next morning, if you really want to. By the way, eating stewed vegetables calms and prepares the body for rest. In general, the main thing is to achieve a reduction in the level of anxiety, and proper rest is ensured.

You lack physical activity

A sedentary lifestyle is a sure way to earn Active and Sedentary Behaviors Influence Feelings of Energy and Fatigue in Women daytime fatigue and drowsiness.

Moreover, this is a vicious circle: the less you move, the more you want to sleep, the more sleepy you get, the less you move. You can break it only by force of will.

What to do

Move. The more often you get up and exercise, the more energetic and less sleepy you will feel. Check and make sure.

You are missing some vitamins or minerals

Drowsiness is often caused by a deficiency of vitamin D or B12, as well as iron, magnesium or potassium. All these substances play an important role in energy metabolism. If they are lacking, all the body wants is to crawl under the blanket and close its eyes.

What to do

To check whether everything is in order with the listed vitamins and microelements, you need to take a blood test. It is best to do this with the direction of a therapist. The doctor will be able to correctly interpret the test results and, if necessary, recommend pharmacy vitamins and dietary supplements.

However, they may not be needed. Sometimes the lack of a particular substance can be compensated by making changes to the daily diet. For example, to increase your iron levels, you need to eat spinach, liver and red meat.

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