We often say that people need 7-9 hours of sleep, but some people require more sleep to feel rested. “Long sleepers” are people who regularly sleep more than the average person their age. As adults, their nightly length of sleep tends to be 10 to 12 hours. This sleep is very normal and of a good quality.
“While consistently getting less than the recommended amount of sleep has been associated with multiple adverse health outcomes, sleeping more than nine hours per night regularly may also be detrimental,” Makekau says. She says oversleeping can lead to: Increased fatigue and low energy. Decrease in immune function.
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.
The most common causes of excessive sleepiness are sleep deprivation and disorders like sleep apnea and insomnia. Depression and other mental health conditions, certain medications, and medical conditions affecting the brain and body can cause daytime drowsiness as well.
Oversleeping is associated with many health problems, including: Type 2 diabetes. Heart disease. Obesity.
Hypersomnia is a condition in which people have excessive daytime sleepiness. This means they feel tired during the day. Hypersomnia can also include situations in which a person needs to sleep a lot.
Narcolepsy and other sleep disorders commonly cause hypersomnia. Doctors might also call consistent oversleeping that causes you distress in daily life an excessive quantity of sleep (EQS) View Source . When the cause for your sleepiness cannot be found, the disorder is called idiopathic hypersomnia.
Many cases of tiredness are due to stress, not enough sleep, poor diet and other lifestyle factors. Try these self-help tips to restore your energy levels. If you feel you're suffering from fatigue, which is an overwhelming tiredness that isn't relieved by rest and sleep, you may have an underlying medical condition.
Research bears out the connection between too much sleep and too little energy. It appears that any significant deviation from normal sleep patterns can upset the body's rhythms and increase daytime fatigue.
Reasons for fatigue in females include high sleep debt, being out of sync with your circadian rhythm, your menstrual cycle and period, pregnancy, menopause, hormonal contraceptives, poor diet, lack of exercise, stress and anxiety, medication side effects, and medical conditions like thyroid issues or anemia.
Sleep inertia, or wake-up grogginess, is the main reason you're unable to fully wake up in the morning or after a nap. It's a completely normal part of your sleep-wake cycle that's intensified by factors like high sleep debt and circadian misalignment (caused by sleeping in, social jetlag, and travel jet lag).
Mental laziness and lack of motivation can also be caused by one simple problem: not having enough exercise and nutrients in the body. One should consider eating healthy food high in protein, such as green, leafy vegetables, and fatty fish. Research also suggests eating berries and walnuts and drinking coffee or tea.
If the fatigue is associated with chest pain, shortness of breath, irregular heart rate, or sense of imminent passing out, these are urgent conditions that warrant immediate medical attention.
There are three types of fatigue: transient, cumulative, and circadian: Transient fatigue is acute fatigue brought on by extreme sleep restriction or extended hours awake within 1 or 2 days.
There are 5 main symptoms of narcolepsy, referred to by the acronym CHESS (Cataplexy, Hallucinations, Excessive daytime sleepiness, Sleep paralysis, Sleep disruption). While all patients with narcolepsy experience excessive daytime sleepiness, they may not experience all 5 symptoms.
Sleeping a lot isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sleep is important. Not getting enough sleep puts you at risk for health problems, from heart disease to obesity to diabetes. However, sleeping a lot all of a sudden when you didn't before might be a reason to look closely at what is going on with your health.
It's the body's way of recharging and healing. For some people, it's also a great escape. Dreaming is fun, and sleep is a way to get away from problems in the real world. Sleep enthusiasts know that a good snooze is a great cure for things like stress, anxiety, and a bad mood.
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.
If you are obsessed with sleeping or have an intense desire to stay in bed, you could be suffering from a condition called clinomania. That doesn't mean that there aren't people who can experience symptoms similar to addiction and even withdrawal in association with sleep, or lack thereof, however.
For people who suffer from hypersomnia, oversleeping is actually a medical disorder. The condition causes people to suffer from extreme sleepiness throughout the day, which is not usually relieved by napping. It also causes them to sleep for unusually long periods of time at night.