Oversleeping instead of rejuvenating you, can make you ill. © Shutterstock
We all love to catch up on lost sleep given the competitive and stressful environment that we live in sleeping for eight hours at a stretch is considered a luxury. So, it is quite natural that we all crave for that extra sleep to rejuvenate ourselves and get along with the mundane and yet so draining tasks of our lives. But if you are doing it way too much, which means sleeping more than it is needed this extra rest can backfire. Yes, instead of rejuvenating you, it will make you ill. So, like everything else in life you should not overdo sleep. If you do you might be risking your health to the following problems:
Diabetes: When you sleep too long (or too less) it has an effect on the metabolic functions of your body and this can increase the risk of suffering from diabetes.
Obesity: Too much sleep affects your weight. One recent study showed that people who slept for nine or 10 hours every night were 21% more likely to become obese over a six-year period than were people who slept between seven and eight hours.
Headaches: Do you go off to sleep when you get a headache? Well, the reverse can happen if you sleep for too long. For some people prone to headaches, sleeping longer than usual on a weekend or vacation can cause head pain. Some studies say that oversleeping has an effect on the neurotransmitters in the brain, including serotonin which leads to the pains. People who sleep too much during the day and get less sleep in the night can also find themselves suffering from headaches in the morning.
Back pain: Oversleeping doesn't give adequate rest to your back. It could, in fact, make it worse for you, experts to recommend doing light exercises to overcome back problems than taking complete bed rest.
Depression: Studies say roughly 15% of people with depression sleep too much. This may, in turn, make their depression worse. That's because regular sleep habits are important to the recovery process.
Heart disease: The Nurses' Health Study involved nearly 72,000 women showed that women who slept nine to 11 hours per night were 38% more likely to have coronary heart disease than women who slept eight hours.
Immature death: Multiple studies have found that people who sleep nine or more hours a night have significantly higher death rates than people sleeping seven to eight hours a night. No specific reason for this correlation has been determined yet.
