It's important to remember that oversleeping is a possible symptom of depression and that oversleeping doesn't cause depression. But it can exacerbate and worsen depression symptoms, Dr. Drerup explains. “If someone's oversleeping, they may wake up and feel like they've missed out on the day,” she says.
Like insufficient sleep, oversleeping is a sign of disordered sleep. It may be connected to a mental health issue, such as depression. It's often a signal that a person is experiencing poor sleep quality, and it can be a sign of a clinical sleep disorder, including obstructive sleep apnea or narcolepsy.
In medical terms, oversleeping means sleeping more than nine hours in 24 hours. It's associated with a higher risk of several conditions, including heart disease, stroke, and heart failure. That doesn't mean it causes those conditions. Instead, oversleeping may be a symptom of other underlying conditions.
You're most likely sleeping so much all of a sudden because you're sleep deprived. Your body wants to sleep more than usual to catch up on recent lost sleep. Other reasons include needing more rest after intense exercise, when fighting off an illness, or there's an underlying medical condition or sleep disorder.
Hypersomnia refers to medical conditions in which you repeatedly feel excessively tired during the day (called excessive daytime sleepiness) or sleep longer than usual at night. It is different from feeling tired due to lack of or interrupted sleep at night.
Vitamin B12 Deficiency: A Rare Cause of Excessive Daytime Sleepiness - PMC.
Too much sleep — as well as not enough sleep — raises the risk of chronic diseases, such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, anxiety and obesity in adults age 45 and older. Sleeping too much puts you at greater risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes than sleeping too little.
Khan says. “But when you're doing that habitually and you're sleeping more than eight or nine hours every day, that would be oversleeping.” Oversleeping typically indicates something else is going on, such as an underlying sleep disorder or another medical condition.
A study published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews found that there is a bidirectional relationship between sleep and intelligence, with better sleep promoting higher intelligence and higher intelligence promoting better sleep.
If you or a loved one feel sleepy or fatigued, despite having 7-8 hours of sleep, it could indicate poor sleep quality or be a sign of an underlying sleep disorder. If you have questions or concerns about your sleep health, please speak with your primary care provider.
In fact, there can be many underlying reasons why you feel so fatigued, including nutrient deficiency, high stress and anxiety levels, hormonal imbalance, and other medical conditions. By implementing these three takeaways, you are a step closer to getting the sleep you need to feel refreshed the next day.
If you're like most people, you'd kill for a longer night's sleep. But in turn, longer sleep might just kill you. New research shows that adults who sleep more than eight hours a night are at a higher risk of early death.
Creating a routine, keeping a sleep journal, and changing the type of alarm you use are all things that can help you stop oversleeping. Some habits take more effort to break than others, so don't get discouraged if you don't notice immediate results.
And while the occasional long sleep is generally nothing to worry about, oversleeping several days a week could be a sign that something more serious is going on.
Possible culprit: A vitamin or mineral deficiency
One possible reason for feeling tired, anxious, and weak is having low levels of iron, vitamin D, or B12. Many experts believe that a significant percentage of the U.S. population is deficient in vitamin D.
But did you know that sleeping too much could also be problematic? Oversleeping is associated with many health problems, including: Type 2 diabetes. Heart disease.
“Women are also multi-taskers, and they do a lot at once. Because they use more of their actual brain, they may need a little bit more sleep than men. It is still debatable, but some experts say that women need twenty more minutes on average than men usually need.”
The best time to wake up in the morning is between 6:30 am to 7. Waking up early is considered to be one of the healthiest morning habits that shape the rest of your day.
For optimum health and function, the average adult should get seven to nine hours of sleep every night.
Anxiety can cause racing or repetitive thoughts, and worries that keep you awake. You may also have panic attacks while you're trying to sleep. Depression and seasonal affective disorder (SAD) can make you sleep more, including staying in bed for longer or sleeping more often. Depression can also cause insomnia.
Too much sleep, however, can be a way of escaping your feelings or situations in life. Recovery is an exhausting process and can be uncomfortable and challenging at times. It is easy to want to escape to peaceful sleep, but sleep is not a healthy escape if it interferes with your daily life.