How Much Sleep... Is Too Much Sleep?

In the fall, I slept less than 7 or less hours of sleep at night. At the beginning of this year, I got a solid 8 hours of sleep. Now, without early start times in my way and a lack of social activities, I sleep almost 10 and a half hours of sleep every night. This makes me ask myself the question: am I sleeping TOO much?

It seems almost like a luxury problem to have in this day and age, where many people are struggling to reach the minimum recommended sleep amount which is somewhere between 7-8 hours, depending on the person. According to a recent study, however, it is possible to sleep too much, and it may be just as detrimental to your health as sleeping too little.

A new study has suggested that getting nine or more hours of sleep per night also could be unhealthy. Researchers have conducted studies in which they track the amount of sleep of 116,632 people in 21 different countries, who they each followed for around 7.8 years. These researchers wanted to discover the mortality risk associated with the amount these individuals slept. They they then published their findings in the European Heart Journal.

What was revealed was that the amount of sleep you get and its correlation with your mortality risk follows a J-shaped curve. This means that there was a point, around 8 hours of sleep, where the risk of mortality was minimized. Not surprisingly, as you descend down the chart, and the number of hours slept decrease, the risk of death increased.

But what is surprising is that there is also a rising risk of mortality as the number of hours increase. Both this specific study, and other studies, have proven the same fact, multiple times: people who get nine or more hours of rest each night seem to have higher rates of mortality.

Does this mean that sleeping more is dangerous? It doesn't prove it for sure. Although it appears to be correlated, the curve in the J-shape may be due to some other factor.

Matthew Walker, the author of "Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams" (one of my favourite books), has discussed how different diseases or chronic ailments may lead people to sleep more. In his book, he states, "Should you explore these studies in detail, you learn that the causes of death in individuals sleeping nine hours or longer include infection (e.g., pneumonia) and immune-activating cancers."

Therefore it can be stated that chronic diseases or illnesses may cause an individual to sleep more, rather than it being the other way around. Although there may still be some unknown implications that sleeping more could potentially be harmful, Walker states that "no biological mechanisms that show sleep to be in any way harmful have been discovered."

Currently it appears that getting more sleep isn't harmful, but science is still unclear on this issue. However, what science is clear about is the extraordinary harm that sleep deprivation can cause. Therefore it is currently proven that it is much more dangerous to not sleep enough, than sleep too much.

Sleep needs vary depending on the person, and sometimes people need more sleep in order to function. Just as young children need an average of at least 14 hours of sleep at night, teenagers and young adults may need as much as 11 hours.

Moral of the story is: if you are concerned about the amount of sleep you are getting, speak to a professional, and always aim to get at least 7 hours of sleep per night.