If you’re a healthy adult, you should be getting about seven to nine hours of sleep per night. The exceptions to this rule are children, teens, anyone who’s sick, and anyone with a medical condition (via the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine). As it turns out, oversleeping and not sleeping enough are both bad for you. You might be sleeping too much if you sleep for more than nine hours a night several times a week and still feel tired during the day (via Insider).
Health problems associated with oversleeping include type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, depression, headaches, and a greater risk of dying from a medical condition (via John Hopkins Medicine). However, more research is needed on whether sleeping too much causes these health problems, or if the health problems themselves cause oversleeping.
A 2014 study published in PLOS ONE found that people who slept more than 10 hours a night had a higher rate of psychiatric disease and a higher BMI. If you’re sleeping more than nine hours a night several nights a week, you need to make an appointment with your doctor to determine if there’s a medical condition causing it.
Health problems you might have if you sleep too much
There are several medical conditions that can affect your quality of sleep, which can make you feel tired after getting your recommended amount of sleep. This includes sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, bruxism (clenching or grinding your teeth), chronic pain, and certain medications (via John Hopkins).
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Some conditions cause you to oversleep. These include narcolepsy, delayed sleep phase syndrome, and idiopathic insomnia. The good news is that there are treatments for all of these medical conditions. You can sleep well again with the right diagnosis (or diagnoses) and treatment.
Your doctor should set you up for a sleep study so they can determine the problem that’s causing you to oversleep and feel tired during the day. A sleep study will help rule out any sleep disorders. Make an appointment with your doctor so you can sleep well again.
