TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Seven reasons why too much sleep is not always good
While the negative effects of too little sleep are commonly acknowledged among researchers and the public, the notion that too much sleep could be linked to health problems has gone under the radar.
Change Size
Good sleep is essential for your body and brain to function during the day. (Shutterstock/File)
The US-based National Sleep Foundation recommends the average adult get seven to nine hours of sleep every night.
While the negative effects of too little sleep are commonly acknowledged among researchers and the public, the notion that too much sleep could be linked to health problems has gone under the radar.
However, a growing body of research is connecting oversleeping with negative health outcomes.
"Oversleeping is not harmful in and of itself, but it is a sign that you may be sleeping ineffectively, or that there is another problem requiring more sleep," says Carl Bazil, MD, director of the division of sleep and epilepsy at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.
Here are seven ways according to Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/health/wellness/too-much-sleep/) that too much sleep could have negative effects on your health:
Greater risk of heart disease and stroke
Cardiovascular disease is one of the problems linked to long sleep patterns, as researchers from the Chicago School of Medicine discovered that people who sleep more than eight hours per night are twice as likely to have angina (chest pain) and 10 percent more likely to have coronary heart disease.
Other researchers have also discovered increased risks of heart disease, with the Nurse's Health Study finding that long sleepers have a 38 percent greater chance of contracting these diseases. Another study in the UK found a 46 percent greater chance of stroke in long sleepers, even after adjustments for other risk factors.
Read also: Lack of sleep boosts chance of death by heart failure
Weight issues linked with oversleeping
Understanding the relationship between weight gain and oversleeping has long posed a challenge for health experts, with some noting that oversleeping could be both a cause and an effect.
"One difficulty to untangling these effects is that things like sleep-disordered breathing, depression, or medication side effects can cause an increase in sleep duration and are also linked to other risk factors, such as weight gain," says Elizabeth McDevitt, PhD, a researcher at the Sleep and Cognition Lab at the University of California, Riverside.
Michael Irwin, MD, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, says that long sleepers are more likely to be obese due to a sedentary lifestyle.
A study from Canada, meanwhile, found that long sleepers were 25 percent more likely to gain five kilograms over the study's six-year-period and experienced a 21 percent increase in risk of developing obesity.
Risk of developing diabetes
As oversleeping is associated with obesity, increased risk of diabetes is also considered another effect. Canadian researchers have even found that long sleepers doubled their risk of developing diabetes even after adjusting for body mass.
Other studies suggest that both too much or too little sleep can affect blood glucose levels, regardless of weight or activity level.
Overall, however, the connection between oversleeping and diabetes has not yet been definitively proven. "Very little is understood about mechanistic pathways linking long sleep and health outcomes," McDevitt says.
Read also: Study suggests a good night's sleep can help prevent depression
Headaches from oversleeping
While waking up from too little sleep could leave someone feeling groggy and with a headache, the same effect could be felt after a long slumber.
"The mechanism behind this isn't understood that well, and one hypothesis is that fluctuations in neurotransmitters during sleep may be a trigger for headaches," McDevitt says. "Another possibility is that when people sleep later in the morning, they may be sleeping past their normal breakfast or coffee time, and the headaches may be related to caffeine withdrawals, low blood sugar or dehydration."
Oversleeping could lead to depression
According to studies, oversleeping is frequently associated with mental distress, with oversleeping noted as a symptom of depression. Meanwhile, a separate study conducted on twins found that long sleep actually activated genes related to depressive symptoms.
One hypothesis is that long sleep duration is associated with decreased physical activity.
"Physical activity has been associated with reduced risk of depression by increasing levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, increasing release of endorphins, distracting from stressful stimuli, and improving self-esteem," McDevitt says.
Read also: Air pollution disrupts our sleep, says new study
Too much sleep could cause pain to your body
Spending too much time in bed can lead to aches, especially if you suffer from back problems, due to reduction in activity.
"It has to do with lying in a position for an extended period of time, [lack of] movement while sleeping, or a bad mattress," says Dr. Breus.
Disruption to brain functions
A Harvard study showed that older women who slept more than nine hours experienced a deterioration in cognitive functioning equivalent to aging almost two years. Other research has shown a connection between long sleep and the onset of dementia.
"Since sleep duration is linked with so many other factors that can also influence cognition, it's likely that there are both direct and indirect effects of sleep duration on cognition," McDevitt says. "Oversleeping might also be a marker of underlying circadian disruptions or health problems that could lead to structural brain changes and poor cognitive functioning." (liz/kes)
