Why Oversleeping Is Harmful ~ You Should Get No More Than 7-9 Hours of Sleep

It’s well known that too much of a good thing can be detrimental to your health, a lack of sleep can affect you physically by causing diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and heart disease but it can also cause a lack of focus, fatigue, and a short temper. Getting too much sleep on the other hand, can still cause medical issues such as diabetes, stroke and in rare cases an increase in the possibility of death. An excessive amount of sleep is categorized as anything more than 9 hours, with the National Sleep Foundation recommending that adults get an average of 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night to feel and function their best.

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-By Nikki Main

For those who get more than 9 hours of sleep each night, the effects can be damaging to your body. Obesity was found to be 47% more likely to occur over a six-year period than those who got the average amount of sleep per night. Studies showed that even after exercise and diet, those getting more than the recommended amount of sleep were found to be 27% more likely to gain weight.

While obesity is a problem caused by too much sleep, type 2 diabetes was found to be more likely to develop in those who became too friendly with the sandman.

 We’ve all done it, pulled an all-nighter to get the work completed for the next day, or perhaps binge-watched the new season of Orange is the New Black, but what does this really do to our bodies? Researchers have proven that people who don’t sleep enough are likely to develop cardiovascular disease which occurs when plaque builds up in the walls of arteries making it difficult for blood to flow through. Sleep affects processes that keep your heart and blood vessels healthy, if you aren’t getting enough sleep, this will affect your body’s ability to heal and repair the blood vessels and heart.

Without enough sleep, your body won’t be able to hold memory retention and you will be more prone to fatigue throughout the day, yawning, and irritability. In the long run, this can affect your relationships with those around you and it can affect the quality of work you do at your job. Sleep loss affects your quality of learning as well, a lack of sleep will affect you cognitively and will impair attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. Your body needs sleep, just as it needs air and food to function at its best.

If you want to avoid the dangerous trap of getting too much sleep or too little, try setting an alarm for bed and an alarm to wake up. Don’t hit the snooze button in the morning, instead force yourself to get out of bed, over time this will become a habit. If you need a little help, try taking a multi vitamin which will give you a daily energy boost. If all other problems persist, try seeking help at a doctor’s office who can determine if you have depression, sleep apnea, or other health conditions.

-N.M.