Why Sleeping Too Much Hurts Too

Sharon Moore February 17, 2015

You probably have heard and read a lot of things about lack of sleep. You probably know that a single night of you not having enough sleep can cause dramatic impact on your mood and energy levels, and can put you at risk of many different health issues, including heart disease.

But what about too much sleep? They say too much of everything, even if it’s a good thing, is actually bad. And it applies to sleep too. Most adults need seven to nine hours of shut eye each night to function fully. Going more than this may actually be a sign of a medical condition, as what some experts believe.

Below are the not-so-good effects of getting too much sleep:

It can lead to weight gain.

Whilst sufficient sleep is critical to managing weight, going overboard can cause the opposite thing. In 2009, researchers at Université Laval’s Faculty of Medicine found that short and long sleepers gained more weight over the six years than people who slept seven to eight hours a night. Specifically, those who slept nine to 10 hours each night were 25 per cent more likely to have gained 5 kilograms over the study period. More surprisingly, the result holds true even after controlling for food intake and physical activity.

It may up your diabetes risk.

The same research team also found that people who slept more than eight hours each night are more likely to have impaired glucose tolerance over a six-year period than people who slept between seven and eight hours. And even after taking into account the effect attributable to differences in body mass among the subjects, the risk of diabetes and insulin resistance was still twice as high among those with longer and shorter sleep duration than average sleepers.

It puts strain on your heart too.

Yes, getting enough sleep is essential to your heart health. But getting too much Zizz’s isn’t good either. In a paper presented during the 2012 American College of Cardiology meeting, sleeping for eight or more hours each night was linked to an increased risk of heart problems. The researchers analysed data from over 3,000 people and found that long sleepers had two times the risk of angina and 1.1-times the risk of coronary artery disease.

It makes you more than sad.

Do you experience lethargic feelings every time you had so much sleep? In another study, carried out by researchers from University of Washington, University of Pennsylvania and the University of Texas at Austin, participants who slept a "normal" amount each night – between seven and 8.9 hours a night – had a 27 per cent heritability of depressive symptoms. Yet, getting too little sleep can have the same effect. Same researchers found that people who slept fewer than seven hours a night or nine or more hours a night had an increased heritability of depressive symptoms: 53 percent for the short sleepers and 49 percent for the long sleepers.

It impedes pregnancy.

In 2013, Korean researchers found that pregnancy rates were highest among the women who got seven to eight hours of sleep a night and lowest in women who got nine to 11 hours.

Too much sleep is linked to increased mortality risk.

Just as sleep deprivation is, too much sleep is also tied to an increased risk of mortality. A 2010 study published in the journal Sleep emphasises the link between both short and long duration of habitual sleep with adverse health outcomes. Researchers found an increased risk of dying of any cause among both short and long sleepers.

Let us all make quality sleep a health priority. Make sure you’re getting enough of sleep, but don’t go overboard either.