Understanding The Risks & Effects Of Oversleeping

After a long day of work, exercising, and spending time with our loved ones, we all crave a good night’s rest to rejuvenate for the day ahead. Effectively balancing your sleep duration can improve your mental health and mood, strengthen your immune system, enhance cognitive function, and help you navigate social situations better. Conversely, too little sleep increases lethargy, irritability, and the risk of chronic heart, kidney, and other diseases.  

It’s worth noting, however, that the other end of the spectrum is not often talked about i.e. the effects of oversleeping. Regularly oversleeping can increase the risk of diabetes, heart conditions, obesity, depression, and other mental health disorders.  

But, what sleep duration is too much? What are oversleeping symptoms and how to correct them? We answer all these questions on excessive sleep disorder (and more) to help you in your journey to better sleep!

What is defined as oversleeping?

Experts state that an adult's healthy sleep duration recommendation is between 7-9 hours. So, regularly crossing this ideal number of hours can be considered oversleeping or excessive sleep disorder.

There might be some exceptions to these sleep patterns. For example, you may want to rest for a longer time when recovering from an illness, but this is not a cause of excessive sleep.  

What causes oversleeping is often underlying health issues like sleep apnea, hypersomnia, and depression, to name a few. A good way to distinguish between the two is through symptoms or effects of oversleeping that disturb daily functioning.  

Physical Health Implications of Oversleeping

1. Obesity and Weight Gain

• Just like sleeping too little, one of the most common oversleeping symptoms is weight gain.  
• Researchers state that people who have unhealthy sleep patterns are 21% more likely to gain weight compared to normal sleepers— as oversleeping alters your hormonal balance and the way your body stores fat.  

2. Heart Health

• When researching the sleep and heart health link, it was observed that oversleepers are 32% more likely to develop a heart attack.  
• Different sleep patterns, especially longer ones, can put your body under stress and increase inflammation, which adversely affects your heart’s functioning.  
• Various sleep-heart health studies also show that oversleeping can spike blood pressure, a prominent marker of hypertension.  

3. Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders

• Studies conducted by the Journal of Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders prove that irregular sleep patterns can cause metabolic health issues.  
• Some common side effects of oversleeping are higher triglyceride levels, which lead to insulin resistance, low HDL or good cholesterol levels, and higher waist circumference.
• All of these can trigger metabolic syndrome, increasing your risk of Type 2 Diabetes.  

Cognitive and Mental Effects

1. Cognitive Function

• Impaired cognitive functioning is a debilitating oversleeping symptom that can hamper work performance, mood, social skills, and more.  
• One tends to feel more sluggish during the day, even experiencing fatigue and headaches due to oversleeping. 
• This affects decision-making, reasoning, attention, memory retention, and verbal abilities.  

2. Mood and Mental Health

• The most noticeable effects of oversleeping are feelings of grogginess or disorientation when you wake up.  
• This can enhance the inability to deal with even minor stressors, causing irritable moods, a drop in energy levels, and heightened anxiety.  
• Oversleeping can cause headaches too, which further act as a stressor to the mind and body.

Sleep Disorders and Oversleeping

1. Hypersomnia

• Hypersomnia is defined as experiencing excessive sleepiness, even when you get adequate sleep at night.  
• People with hypersomnia often experience anxiety, low energy, irritability, and difficulty focusing or concentrating because they are in constant need of sleep.  
• This need then becomes one of the main reasons for excessive sleeping.

2. Depression and Oversleeping

• Oversleeping is a common indicator of mental health disorders like depression - 15% of those with depression claim to sleep too much!  
• Depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder are some lesser-known causes of excessive sleep as it is often a way to escape from reality.  
• However, this can cause mood and energy levels to further worsen, making one feel like they haven’t been productive enough.  

Age and Oversleeping

1. Oversleeping in Elderly Individuals:

• It is well known that there are different sleep duration recommendations at different ages.  
• While teenagers need 8-10 hours of sleep, adults should get just between 7-9 hours to avoid negative effects of oversleeping.  
• However, as an individual gets older, their circadian rhythms change, causing different sleep patterns than what is considered normal.  
• These patterns get further exacerbated due to chronic physical and mental health issues, which make falling and staying asleep more difficult.  
• This increases their reasons for excessive sleeping during the daytime, and the change in sleep-wake cycles may lead to anxiety, mood disorders, low energy, and irritability.

2. Oversleeping in Adolescents

• Like adults, what causes oversleeping in adolescents could be an underlying physical or mental health issue like depression or anxiety.  
• Other causes of excessive sleep could be changes in circadian rhythms and hormonal balance, lack of sleep hygiene, or substance use.  
• Being mindful of these effects of oversleeping is essential, as it can affect school performance, interpersonal relationships, extracurricular activities, and overall development.

Reasons Behind Excessive Sleep

1. Health Conditions

• Sleep Apnea (a disorder that disturbs or stops your breathing patterns for sleep)
• Hypersomnia
• Depression or Other Mental Health Disorders
• Obesity
• Cardiovascular Diseases or Diabetes
• Restless Leg Syndrome
• Hypothyroidism
• Chronic Pain

2. Lifestyle Factors

• Use of substances like alcohol, drugs, etc.
• Lack of proper sleep hygiene or environmental factors like sound disturbance
• Inability to deal with stress in work or personal lives
• Consuming an unbalanced diet
• Exerting yourself too much, like overexercising

How Can You Find the Right Balance? 

1. Establishing a Healthy Sleep Routine

• You can keep the negative effects of oversleeping away by following a consistent sleep schedule with these tips:
• To get your body’s biological clock in sync, you need to sleep and wake up at the same time, even on weekends.
• If you aren’t falling asleep within 20-30 minutes of hitting the sack, try to practice some relaxation techniques, dim the lights, or listen to white noise.
• Follow a bedtime routine like listening to music, following a skincare routine, and brushing your teeth. Over time, these act like sleep-time cues for your body.

2. Quality vs. Quantity

Instead of clocking in the hours of sleep, emphasize getting deeper, more restorative sleep to feel well-rested and energized the next day. This can be done by reducing any stressors before nighttime and following good sleep hygiene tips like a fixed sleep schedule.

Seeking Professional Guidance

1. When to Consult a Doctor

If you feel that your reasons for excessive sleeping are not just sleep deprivation or a heavy work schedule, but rather more frequent, it is best to consult a doctor. They can help you identify the underlying cause or check your sleep quality with the help of a sleep test.

2. Medical Assessments

When you seek professional help, most often your doctor will start by doing a physical assessment, checking your medical history, and possible further tests like a blood test. To check for your oversleeping symptoms, they can ask you to keep a sleep diary or do a sleep study or Polysomnography with a sleep clinic. Other medical assessments that your doctor might prescribe are Multiple Sleep Latency Tests or Sleep questionnaires.

Strategies for Improving Sleep Patterns

1. Importance of Sleep Hygiene

• Sleep hygiene tips refer to various habits and behaviors you can implement to ensure you have a good night’s sleep.  
• There is a strong link between sleep hygiene and mental health as well as overall health, so here are some tips you can practice at home:
• Follow your sleep schedule and bedtime routine. There is an undeniable link between a consistent schedule for sleep and heart health, mental health, cognitive function, and more.
• Set a comfortable temperature for the room, put on relaxing music, and dim the lights in your bedroom to ensure an ambient atmosphere.  
• Avoid any heavy meals as well as nicotine, caffeine, and alcohol before going to bed.
• Avoid screen time at least an hour before bed as it can increase mental stimulation.
• Get exercise during the day to improve your mental health and mood, reduce stressors, and increase the need for rest.
• Limit naps in your day as it can make falling asleep at night more difficult.

2. Gradual Adjustments

Don’t do everything, all at once! It can be difficult to keep up with changes suddenly and might discourage you. Instead, implement these sleep hygiene tips in gradual steps. Try adding these to your routine one by one and make adjustments to your sleep and wake-up time in 20-30-minute increments.  

Conclusion

Consistently sleeping past the recommended number of hours can have far-reaching implications on a person, including effects on mood, cognition, metabolism, cardiovascular risks, and even mortality.  

The first step in recovering your sleep schedule is understanding what sleep duration is, understanding the effects of oversleeping, and analysing if you are getting quality sleep.  

Don’t be afraid to reach out to a doctor who can help you determine the underlying cause of oversleeping. With professional help, you will be able to better prioritize the importance of sleep hygiene, healthy lifestyle habits, and proper breathing patterns for sleep, and ultimately enhance your overall quality of life!