Idiopathic Hypersomnia View Source , excessive sleepiness, and the inability to feel rested after sleeping at night or napping during the day. With this disorder, you may sleep as much as 14 to 18 hours a day. For treatment, doctors often prescribe medications similar to what is prescribed for narcolepsy.
How Much Sleep Is Too Much? Sleep needs can vary from person to person, but in general, experts recommend that healthy adults get an average of 7 to 9 hours per night of shuteye. If you regularly need more than 8 or 9 hours of sleep per night to feel rested, it might be a sign of an underlying problem, Polotsky says.
The most common causes of excessive sleepiness are sleep deprivation and disorders like sleep apnea and insomnia. Depression and other mental health conditions, certain medications, and medical conditions affecting the brain and body can cause daytime drowsiness as well.
And while sleep deprivation is a widespread problem (considering all the aforementioned health functions of sleep), sleeping too much can be cause for concern as well. The Sleep Foundation defines oversleeping as sleeping more than nine hours in a 24-hour period.
Too much sleep on a regular basis can increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and death according to several studies done over the years. Too much is defined as greater than nine hours. The most common cause is not getting enough sleep the night before, or cumulatively during the week.
Research bears out the connection between too much sleep and too little energy. It appears that any significant deviation from normal sleep patterns can upset the body's rhythms and increase daytime fatigue.
Vitamin B12 Deficiency: A Rare Cause of Excessive Daytime Sleepiness.
Hypersomnia is a condition in which people have excessive daytime sleepiness. This means they feel tired during the day. Hypersomnia can also include situations in which a person needs to sleep a lot.
Sleeping a lot isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sleep is important. Not getting enough sleep puts you at risk for health problems, from heart disease to obesity to diabetes. However, sleeping a lot all of a sudden when you didn't before might be a reason to look closely at what is going on with your health.
Studies have shown that spending too much time in bed can be associated with some specific health problems. It can disrupt the body's circadian rhythms, leaving you more prone to illness, for example, and depriving you of sunlight exposure, which can compromise your immune system.
Editor's note: Kleine-Levin Syndrome mostly affects teen boys, causing them to sleep up to 20 hours a day during episodes that can last weeks. It's rare, possibly affecting one person in a million, with a higher incidence among Jewish people.
Sleep inertia, or wake-up grogginess, is the main reason you're unable to fully wake up in the morning or after a nap. It's a completely normal part of your sleep-wake cycle that's intensified by factors like high sleep debt and circadian misalignment (caused by sleeping in, social jetlag, and travel jet lag).
Research suggests there's a link between too much sleep and weight gain. As with too little sleep, there is a greater risk of obesity among people who sleep too much. The risks and problems associated with oversleeping go well beyond weight gain.
Interestingly, a few studies in adults have reported that getting too much sleep is linked to a higher risk of obesity.
Several trends have emerged that link oversleeping with increased rates of mortality and disease. In sum, longer sleep habits have been associated with depression, cognitive impairment, increased pain, inflammation, impact fertility, and increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, stroke, and mortality.
Idiopathic Hypersomnia
This sleep disorder is characterized by difficulty waking. View Source , excessive sleepiness, and the inability to feel rested after sleeping at night or napping during the day. With this disorder, you may sleep as much as 14 to 18 hours a day.
It's the body's way of recharging and healing. For some people, it's also a great escape. Dreaming is fun, and sleep is a way to get away from problems in the real world. Sleep enthusiasts know that a good snooze is a great cure for things like stress, anxiety, and a bad mood.
We do not recommend sleeping for only one hour at night. Some research suggests that lost sleep can take years off your life and that you may not be able to catch up on the lost hours of rest. This is because consistent sleep deprivation can cause a myriad of chronic health issues in people over time.
Too much sleep — as well as not enough sleep — raises the risk of chronic diseases, such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, anxiety and obesity in adults age 45 and older. Sleeping too much puts you at greater risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes than sleeping too little.
If a person sleeps a lot, he is sad 3. ; Snoozy: A funny nickname for anyone who likes to sleep a lot.