The causes of too much sleep and its harmful effects on health. Sleep is one of the natural phenomena that the human body does every day. The normal rate of human sleep is between seven to nine hours per day. If sleep exceeds this rate, it will lead to the body being infected with many diseases and multiple health problems. Therefore, we will learn about the causes of sleeping too much and its harm to health in detail.
Healthy sleep
It is a mistake to think that healthy sleep is an increase in the number of hours of sleep above the normal rate, because healthy sleep means deep sleep through which the body can obtain rest and relaxation. To obtain healthy sleep, one must adhere to the following:
- Sleeping early, as many recent studies have shown that sleeping early at night, around 10 pm or earlier, is healthy.
- A person should not sleep immediately after eating, but should wait at least two hours after eating dinner.
- Daily exercise is one of the necessary things that helps with deep sleep.
- You should avoid smoking or taking excessive stimulants as much as possible.
See also: What are the harms of sleeping on the stomach?
إقرأ أيضا:علاج عدم القدرة على النوم بالأعشاب انظر حولكCauses of sleeping too much and its harm to health
There are some reasons that make a person sleep for a large number of hours. The reasons for sleeping too much and its harms to health are as follows:
- Sleeping in an uncomfortable environment, such that a person sleeps in a very hot or very cold room.
- Sleeping in a room with a high level of noise, such as television or other sounds.
- Sleep apnea due to obstruction in the airway.
- Excessive use of tranquilizers.
- Staying up late at night leads to increased feelings of insomnia and fatigue and an increased number of hours of sleep.
- Excessive consumption of certain foods may lead to obesity.
- An increase in the percentage of some elements in the body, such as calcium, sodium, and others.
Reasons for sleeping more than 15 hours
The reasons for sleeping more than 15 hours are some health reasons as follows:
1- Thyroid gland disorders
The thyroid gland is one of the main glands in the body and is responsible for many different functions, including regulating the rate of sleep hours, in addition to improving the metabolic rate.
إقرأ أيضا:كيفية علاج الأرق طبيعياً بالأعشاب انظر حولكThe body regulates the secretion of the hormone thyroxine, which is transported through hormones to the body’s tissues, and a small percentage of it is converted into the hormone triiodothyronine, which causes increased sleep as a result of excessive feelings of fatigue.
2- Heart disease
Many cases of patients with heart and arterial diseases suffer from the problem of oversleeping, due to the lack of oxygenated blood reaching all cells, which causes some cells to gradually become damaged and leads to oversleeping.
3- Daily apnea
The occurrence of disturbances in the breathing process during sleep is one of the reasons that causes a defect in the breathing signals that are sent to the responsible part of the brain, which causes sleep disturbances several times, in addition to the feeling of suffocation, which leads to an increase in the number of hours of sleep.
3- Narcolepsy
This problem is a disorder that affects one in 2,000 people. This disease is characterized by a feeling of drowsiness and excessive sleep, along with hallucinations and loss of the ability to control muscles.
This disease occurs due to a deficiency of hypocretin, which is produced by the hypothalamus, which regulates sleep-wake cycles in the body. This condition often begins in childhood, and the patient may suffer from it for several years.
إقرأ أيضا:اسم دواء منوم للكبار سريع المفعول انظر حولكHarmful effects of too much sleep for men
There are many harms of too much sleep for men, and these harms include the following:
- Destroying the human biological clock, which leads to an increase in the feeling of fatigue and general weakness in the body. This is clearly evident in people who travel for long periods or are exposed to a change in their normal location.
- Headaches: A person who sleeps for long hours suffers from constant headaches throughout the day.
- An imbalance in neurotransmitters in the body, such as an imbalance in serotonin, which affects the mood in the body.
- The presence of some other damage to the body, such as lower back pain, the possibility of blood clots, and heart problems.
Causes of excessive sleep in women
There are many reasons for sleeping too much in women, and these reasons include the following:
1- The menstrual cycle
A woman who suffers from menstruation suffers from significant changes in daily female hormones, which makes her feel an increased need for sleep in the period of two to three days before or during her menstrual cycle.
This condition is one of the conditions that there is no need to worry about, because it is a normal symptom and does not require consultation with a specialist doctor.
2- Pregnancy
Pregnancy is one of the main reasons why a woman sleeps for long periods of time, especially in the early stages. The reason is due to the excessive fatigue that the woman feels as a result of nausea and vomiting along with the change in body hormones that make her feel a constant desire to sleep.
Sleep increases for pregnant women in the first three months, but starting from the fourth month, the percentage of the hormone progesterone, which regulates sleep hours, increases until the seventh month, then the woman begins to lack sleep as a result of not feeling comfortable in the recent period.
3- Childbirth
A woman loses many essential elements from her body during pregnancy, in addition to losing a large amount of blood during childbirth. All of these factors cause a woman to sleep a lot for many hours after giving birth.
4- Exhausting work during daylight hours
A woman’s exhausting work, along with the effort spent at home in cleaning and raising children, are among the factors that increase the woman’s number of hours of sleep.
See also: How do I get rid of talking during sleep?
Disorders that cause excessive sleep
Some people suffer from disorders that cause excessive sleep, including:
1- Restless leg syndrome
This disorder is a problem that occurs in the legs and hinders their ability to move, especially at night, so that the leg makes involuntary shaking movements every 20 seconds.
If a person is in a state of relaxation and sleep, and feels this syndrome, this causes an increase in the feeling of insomnia and thus an increase in the number of hours of sleep.
2- Sleep apnea
This condition occurs when the upper part of the respiratory tract prolapses for at least 10 seconds, repeated hundreds of times. These symptoms are accompanied by snoring and difficulty breathing.
This syndrome occurs when continuous positive airway pressure occurs. It can be controlled through some medications, getting rid of excess weight for those suffering from obesity, or resorting to surgery in some cases.
3- Depression
Feeling sad and depressed is one of the reasons that leads to feeling lethargic and wanting to sleep excessively. Depression and anxiety can be controlled through medication, psychotherapy, and lifestyle changes.
4- Anemia
In the case of anemia, the person suffers from a low level of healthy red blood cells in the body, which leads to a low percentage of oxygen in the body and thus the blood does not reach all parts of the body, which depletes the body’s energy and leads to an increased feeling of sleep.
Health problems associated with too much sleep
Too much sleep leads to many diseases. The health problems associated with too much sleep are as follows:
- Increases the possibility of developing diabetes.
- It contributes to increasing body weight, because studies have shown that people who sleep more than ten hours a day gain weight at a rate of 21%.
- It leads to some headaches, because too much sleep leads to an increase in neurotransmitters in the brain, which leads to more frequent headaches.
- Excessive sleep leads to increased back pain.
- Excessive sleep increases the severity of depression for people suffering from depression. Studies have shown that excessive sleep increases the rate of depression by 15%.
- Excessive sleep increases the risk of developing heart muscle disorders. It has been found that people who sleep 11 hours a night are 38% more likely to develop heart diseases.
- It raises death rates, because sleeping for nine hours or more increases the death rate more than people who sleep seven hours.
Sleeping too much harms the brain
- Doctors believe that the brain is the basic map responsible for all the body’s systems. When any defect occurs in the brain, it affects the body in general.
- When the brain is exposed to small clots, this leads to high blood pressure with some defects in the arteries that cause paralysis and memory imbalance.
- The black cells in the brain secrete a certain substance. When the secretion of this substance decreases, it leads to tremors and some involuntary movements.
- Since the brain needs sufficient time to rest so that it can function normally, staying up late more than usual and having fewer hours of sleep lead to damage to brain cells, especially with age.
- In the case of sleeping for a long number of hours more than required, it leads to damage to brain cells, causing the same problems that result from a lack of hours of sleep.
Harmful effects of sleeping on the stomach
Healthy sleep is through sleeping on the sides or back, but sleeping on the stomach carries many harms and health problems. The harms of sleeping on the stomach are as follows:
1- Damage to the spine
Sleeping on the stomach leads to pressure on the spine, which increases the feeling of pain in the back, neck and joints.
Spinal pain mostly occurs in the late hours of the night which makes a person feel anxious and very tired when they wake up in the morning.
2- Neck problems
Sleeping on the stomach leads to many problems in the neck due to the lack of alignment of the spine during sleep. In the long run, disc herniation may occur.
3- Harm to pregnant women
It is not preferable for a pregnant woman to sleep on her stomach in the last months of pregnancy, because this may cause spinal pain in addition to pressure on the fetus in the uterus, which may lead to the death of the fetus.
Pregnant women are advised to sleep on the left side in particular to increase the flow of blood and nutrients to the fetus and to help the fetus obtain nutrients through the blood.
Sleep therapy a lot
There are many methods that help in treating excessive sleep and this problem, which are as follows:
1- Create a comfortable environment
A comfortable, quiet environment is one of the most suitable environments for sleeping. Therefore, calmness and the appropriate atmosphere for sleep must be provided. You can drink a cup of warm milk before sleeping, take a shower, or practice other activities.
2- Avoid sleeping during nap time
It is recommended to avoid sleeping during the day, because this helps with nighttime insomnia. If it is necessary to sleep in the middle of the day, preferably for more than half an hour.
3- Adherence to specific sleep times
If a person adheres to a fixed sleep schedule and can sleep at this time every day, this will help him adjust the body’s biological clock and feel sleepy at this time every day.
You must adhere to a fixed bedtime every day, even on holidays, to achieve the desired result.
4- Lifestyle change
The lifestyle must be changed so that it is healthier by sleeping enough hours at night, committing to waking up early, exercising, eating healthy food, and avoiding drinking stimulants and caffeine before going to sleep.
How to regulate sleep hours
A person who suffers from an increase in the number of daily hours of sleep can follow the following tips that help in regulating the daily hours of sleep, which are as follows:
1- Pay attention to the amount of food eaten before bed
A person should not eat a large amount of food before going to sleep than necessary, in addition to staying away as much as possible from caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol before going to sleep because they lead to a feeling of insomnia.
2- Getting rid of anxiety and fears
A person should try to relax and get rid of fears, anxiety, and depression as much as possible, and increase the feeling of relaxation within him.
3- Interest in practicing sports activities
Frequent exercise activities greatly help improve sleep quality, and it also works to help the body get rid of insomnia.
4- Treating sleep causes
If the cause of sleeplessness is due to some health disorder, these problems must be treated initially by following up with a specialist doctor until solutions to the problem of increased sleep are reached.
See also: What is recurrent sleep paralysis?
Hours of sleep required for an individual
Knowing the hours of sleep required for an individual contributes greatly to the prevention of health problems that result from an increase or decrease in the number of hours of sleep. The period required for a normal individual is the following:
- Newborns between three months and younger need from 14 to 17 hours a day.
- Infants from four to 11 months need to sleep 12 to 15 hours a day.
- Children between one and two years need to sleep between 11 and 14 hours, and they often wake up at night in particular.
- Children between 3 to 5 years mostly sleep between 10 to 13 hours a day.
- Children between 6 and 13 years old sleep between 9 and 11 hours a day.
- Young people from 18 to 25 years old need between 7 to 9 hours a day.
- Adults from 26 to 64 years old need between 7 to 9 hours of sleep a day.
- Seniors over 65 years old need 7 or 8 hours a day.
After learning about the causes of too much sleep, its harmful effects on health, and the many harms that excessive sleep may cause, for this reason, you must follow healthy methods that help regulate the number of hours of sleep to protect the body from the harms of excessive sleep and to benefit from the benefits of sleep.