Can I sleep too much? Are 10-12 hours per night too much? How many hours are healthy for the average person? These are questions that have recently shown up in my inbox during 2020. More people are experiencing sleep disturbances, strange dreams, and a change in duration, much of it related to our mental health.
All this left me wondering, is it worse to get too much sleep or not enough? You might find it hard to believe, but both too little and too much are hazardous to your health.
According to one study, “Participants who reported sleeping 8 hours or more experienced significantly increased mortality hazard, as did those who slept 6 hours or less. The increased risk exceeded 15% for those reporting more than 8.5 hours of sleep or less than 3.5 or 4.5 hours.”
Not enough is a more common problem than too much, but for those who oversleep, it is equally important to address the underlying cause. Medication, depression, chronic illness, anxiety and stress can all cause us to become long sleepers.
Although your body is equipped to wake when it has had enough, many people rely on an alarm clock. Predominantly due to fear of oversleeping, which in part happens because most people are sleep deprived. Chronic deprivation is why they reach for that snooze button. Read more…
