Oversleeping

[- Wrath of God -]

Ok so here's the thing. Summer vacation has started recently for me, and I've always had this bad habit of sleeping too much. Let me begin by saying that I can't go to bed early - it's impossible for me. If I go to bed at 12am, for example, I can't fall asleep until 1am. However, if I go to bed at 3am, I fall asleep almost instantly. So lately I've been going to bed at 3am. Almost every day now, I woke up at least once at each of the following times - 8am, 10am, 12pm, and I've fallen asleep afterward. Then I fully wake up at 1pm or 2pm. Now I have almost nothing to do during the week so it may just be laziness, but I don't know. Also, something worth mentioning is that when I sleep for about 5-7 hours, I end up feeling cheery and energized. However if I sleep for more than 8, I end up tired for almost the whole day. This isn't consistent, though.

So I guess this post breaks down into 5 questions:

1) Is sleeping too much bad for you?
2) If so, how/why is it bad for you?
3) If so, how much sleep is bad for you? (8 hours, 9 hours, etc.)
4) Should I change my sleeping schedule?
5) If so, to what?

As always, thanks in advance to everyone who replies to this thread.

 

[pikachucrackpipe]

sleeping too much is bad for you
i read something on webmd about it once

 

[- Wrath of God -]

sleeping too much is bad for you
i read something on webmd about it once

I was actually hoping for a lengthier reply...

 

[ChrisCrawford]

I've been seeing the strangest posts lately,

Bit of you go to sleep at 3 and don't wake up till 2, Jeez, lol.

Sleeping too much is GOOD for you. Especially if your at an age where your still growing. The only bad part about oversleeping is wasting your time. I myself have the a similar problem, I think it's just hard for people like us to fall asleep. Need to be pretty tiered. If I correct my sleep schedual it gradually gets pushed later and later like a half hour each night, I seem to be pretty normalized these last few months though.

Maybe I'm getting old.

Average hours of sleep needed is 7, recommended is 8, if your a teenager I could even see up to 10, you sleepy ass teenager.

 

[pikachucrackpipe]

sleeping too much is bad for you
i read something on webmd about it once

I was actually hoping for a lengthier reply...

umm ok then
go to bed around 10-11pm and don't sleep over 8-9 hours a night.

change your mattress if you can't get to sleep because it's not comfortable.

 

[lagman]

Hypersomnia.


It´s also bad to drink too much milk

 

[fischju_original]

The part of the brain the controls melatonin and serotonin being released is directly behind the optic nerve, long story short, turn the lights on low/off an hour before you want to go to sleep

 

[ndela007]

Speaking from experience:

1) Is sleeping too much bad for you?
Yes it is.

2) If so, how/why is it bad for you?
It is bad as you become used to laying around and your motivation to do things decreases. You just generally become lazy.

3) If so, how much sleep is bad for you? (8 hours, 9 hours, etc.)
The best way to find out how much sleep is good for you is to fall asleep when you are sleepy (ie. if you feel like going to bed @ 9pm, then go to bed) and sleep until you naturally wake up. If you have a week, say during the summer, where you can repeat this 3-5 times in a row, and take the average amount of time you sleep, you will find the correct amount of time you need to sleep. +/- 1 hour will not be bad, but will produce results after prolonged repetition.

4) Should I change my sleeping schedule?
Yes you should! I used to have the exact sleep schedule, and it does make you a lazy bum. I did a 'rough' experiment and found going to bed at 10pm and waking up at 6am every day actually increased my productivity in general. The more daylight you are awake for I have found, the higher your productivity.

5) If so, to what?
See the above.

Hope that helps, just speaking from what I have learned over eight years of my life of extremely odd sleep schedules.

 

[Legend]

I hear that if you sleep over 24 hours, you're clinically declared in a coma.
However, that doesn't sound like the case to you.

I was going through that same problem, a few years ago - when I was in highschool. I would sleep A LOT, during the summer. We're talking 12-15 hours a day, everyday.
I think that it really depends on a lot of factors that you don't have control of... how your body is growing, and whatnot.
Sleep is good for you, I think that it really moreso depends on getting an amount of sleep that you're comfortable with... I don't listen to all of that oversleeping jazz, I just do what I gotta do.
If you're finding that sleeping is interfering with your personal life, homework, etc., then perhaps it's time for you to start regulating a sleeping pattern.

 

[BvG]

Enjoy it! I did that to when I was young (a year ago). Since I've gone into university all my sleep was killed by tests, parties and other studentstuff.

 

[fischju_original]

It could be a sign of clinical depression

 

[FAST6191]

The psychology behind sleep changes with temperature it seems (pick up/download a selection of any psych journals up and you will see what I mean), however if I continue down this path it will turn into a diatribe against psychology so lets stop here.

1) Too much sleep/desire for it can indicate a few things: first you are ill (I fractured my wrist a few weeks back and sleep seems to be more on the cards now, more sinister things like diabetes can also be indicated). There was also some research that said afternoon siestas can increase probability of heart disease but I sense that was not the best research ever done.

2) If after more than 10 hours you still feel tired for not having done anything then you might want to do something, it also depends on what cycle of sleep you are in (compare being woken by an alarm to waking naturally: yeah there are alarms that monitor sleep cycle and wake you accordingly). A change in diet may also help: balanced being better, some allergy/sensitivity tests as well as vitamin/mineral deficiency tests can also pinpoint things.

3) 8/9 Hours (continuous) is suggested for younger people, more elderly people can function well on less.

4) Maybe take up cycling or something and force yourself out of bed (no need to go overboard and do real training: quite in fact your immune system can be impaired by early morning training), actually changing a sleep pattern (for working nights or something) can take about a year.

5) See 4)

Of course if you have just finished the semester (I assume ended with exams: late nights revision and the like) give yourself some time to recover as well.


Edit: much too slow as usual.

 

[Veho]

Get out in the sun, engage in some physical activity, get tired, get out of your room, or the usual rut you are in. I'd suggest a sport. That will get your sleeping to normal, if the current situation isn't normal for you, and you'll see if you're just sleepy because you're generally sluggish.

"Normal" amount of sleep would be (on average) 10 hours daily for kids, 6-7 for adults. 8 would be ideal.

 

[Psyfira]

Also, something worth mentioning is that when I sleep for about 5-7 hours, I end up feeling cheery and energized. However if I sleep for more than 8, I end up tired for almost the whole day. This isn't consistent, though.

Seconded, and I've heard lots of other people say it as well. If you oversleep you'll feel drained for the rest of the day, do it day in day out for a while and you'll just get depressed.

I don't think it matters what time you go to bed as long as you get the right hours of sleep, preferably during dark night hours (I had friends who went to bed at 4am and got up at 4pm, very depressing in winter). In the UK people who are active online or play MMPORGs tend to stay up till 2-3am anyway because of the time difference when playing with/talking to people in the US.

 

[Harsky]

Can't think of a long lengthy reply but when my summer holiday starts, I normally browse online... until 2am then go to bed. And somehow, my body can still remember to wake up at 7-8am because I spent years going to school at that time but when I wake up, I look at the clock, then think, "Ah screw it. I have nothing planned for today" and go back to sleep until 1pm. This is also terrible because I get headaches as well.

 

[- Wrath of God -]

Well I'm not that young - I'm going to be 20 in August. I just finished my first year in a university, but I never studied, so I never stayed up too late. 12:30am was the norm to go to sleep and I wouldn't fall asleep until 1:30am-2:00am. I don't think I'm depressed, although sometimes I think too much about things, and that makes me depressed. Also most of the time, I don't fell like going out with my friends, however after actually hanging out, I wanna do it more.

Today, I went to bed at 3:30am, and woke up at 2:30pm. So that's 11 hours of sleep, and after a nice shower and some food, I felt as good as ever.

The reason that I started the topic was because I like to sleep (I enjoy dreaming very much, and lucid dreams are the best), and whenever I tell anyone how long I sleep they say, "be careful not to oversleep" or "that's bad for you" or something of the sort. Usually the reason that I go to bed late is just surfing the internet. It's not some good reason like studying or doing anything productive.

So I guess that my questions have now changed to:
Can oversleeping be a sign of a more dangerous clinical condition? If so, should I see a doctor?
Is there any clinical condition that could be cause by oversleeping?
Is there any good reason that I shouldn't oversleep? (In the summer, the reasons like laziness or lack of motivation don't really matter to me)

Oh and some references would be nice. For example, picachucrackpipe said that he read something on webmd, and I would like to read up on this.

As always, thanks in advance for your help, and to those that have already answered, thanks a lot it helped.

 

[AWESOME_noob]

Oh and some references would be nice. For example, picachucrackpipe said that he read something on webmd, and I would like to read up on this.

As always, thanks in advance for your help, and to those that have already answered, thanks a lot it helped.

Two words: 'GOOGLE IT'

Typical Sleepy-head Uni students eh? cant be bothered to use their initiative for themselves