too much sleep?

[adrift]

i've read articles before saying that too much sleep is actually detrimental - that it in fact increases fatigue more than helps to prevent it. what do you guys think about this? i just got on break from school and have been sleeping in alot lately. maybe it was helpful in getting over some sleep debt at first, but i feel like i'm pretty low on energy too. i think excersize is necessary too. i have been thinking about it for a while now, but i was thinking of trying to limit my sleep to a minimum of six hours. i guess the challenge there is getting up on time. any thoughts?

[John11]

I've been purposely getting 1-2 hours more sleep per night since I started try to LD. Recently I have felt a lot more fatigued, so it seems like there's something to that. When I started I had plenty of energy to get up in the middle of the night and record my dreams, but not any more, and I just feel more "blah" during the day.

[Thatperson]

6 hours seems optimum for me 7 and i feel fatigued for 4 hours i the morning probably to do with waking mid sleep cycle.

[SyluxJr]

I naturally try and get the average 9 and a half hours in. It refreshes me quite a bit, so maybe the effects are different from person to person?

[Garjzla]

yeah i dunno about this...i sleep untill i am no longer tired....but usually the alarm wakes me up before that...

[adrift]

since iwrote this i've been limiting my sleep to 7 hours, and i feel as if i am doing alot better. i'm a little more alert. if i was still in sleep debt in might be different. so i think in order to feel rested you must be all caught up and then making sure not to sleep longer than necessary.

[Wolfsbane]

I think the exact amount depends on the individual. Just know how much sleep your body needs. Too much sleep, just like not enough, can cause weight gain among other things. You can always get too much of a good thing. Sometimes when I don't get enough sleep (an insanely low amount of 1-3 hours) I am so freaking awake. Sometimes it feels like a refreshed sort of awake, other times it feels like a sugar or caffeine high, complete with midday energy crash. I think that's just my body overcompensating for the sleep deprivation. When I get a ton of sleep (12 hours), I usually wake up at noon or 1. When I wake up that late, I feel lethargic like a lazy bum. If I get 15 hours and wake up at 7 am on my own, I feel great. I think a bit of sleep deprivation is actually good for me. Well, I don't know how "good" it really is, but I just feel better if I do that every once in a while. I'm a night owl and a morning bird. I just don't care for the afternoon, but unfortunately I can't sleep through it. I can survive on either 4 hours or 9 hours. If I get 6-8 hours, I feel like crap. My sleep schedule sucks.

[Kamikaze]

The amount of sleep that is ideal depends on the individual, some deal well with 8, some 6, some 10. I think personally my ideal is about 8. I wake up and get right up feeling refreshed, I have been getting 9 recently because of finals and I barely feel like getting up, I actually jsut feell like going back to bed.

[Brandon Heat]

If I recall correctly, your REM cycle finishes roughly at about 8 hours of sleep give or take a couple of hours. At which point if you continue to sleep it will restart. If your REM period restarts and you wake up during this you will experience fatigue. Thus the fatigue you experience from oversleeping is caused by interupting the current REM cycle caused by waking up pre-maturely. I do believe this is the answer you are looking for?

[LucidDreamGod]

I can tell how much sleep my body wants by the amount of times it wakes up, if I keep falling back to sleep after waking up it usually means my body has gotten enough sleep. Although that is were most of my lucid dreams happen, I don't mind the fatigue if it means I'll have a lucid dream, then it usually doesn't matter.

[seeker28]

When I sleep as long as my body "wants" I usually sleep between 11 and 13 hours per 24 hour cycle. And I usually do sleep this long. I wonder if I sleep too much. When I used to sleep for 8 hours I was constantly falling asleep on my feet. When I sleep 11 to 13 hours I feel a bit dull-minded but not drowsy. I wonder if part of it is my medication... I would certainly love to have more time to do stuff while awake. Hmm... Rambling. Sorry.

[slash112]

7 and a half hours is the optimal sleep duration, it is sayed that people who have an average nights sleep of that will live longer.

[Placebo]

Evidence please, evidence. Where are your sources? Because the more we seem to be discovering about sleep, the more we're finding that sleep is very individual, and also very flexible. I know people who feel great on only 4 hours of normal sleep. And I've done polyphasic sleep totalling 2 hours a day, for a month. And I felt wonderful at the end of it (okay, felt like death the first 2 weeks though)

[TempleGuard]

7 and a half hours is the optimal sleep duration, it is sayed that people who have an average nights sleep of that will live longer. Sayed by who? I have read articles on both 8 hours > 6 hours and vice versa. Nowadays I dont believe in anything regarding sleep w/o being comfired by two studies or w/o someone with reputation in this area talking about it. And trip reports. But I am pretty sure the optimal normal sleep for most of the population is closer to 6 than 8 hours.

[ragamuffin]

I'm concerned, too. I seem to be sleeping so much since about sophomore year (I'm a senior now in high school.) I usually find myself yawning throughout the day and during some classes, I have absoluletly no energy. I will look forward to naps that can last from 4 to 8 pm. That just freaks me out. I'm going to try using the time for these naps to do something productive and exercise/learn piano. Is this a good idea?

[cuddleyperson]

I'd say for me 8-9 hours is best. If I let myself sleep as long as I want I seem to sleep for about 12 hours but I feel really fatigued the rest of the day and don't do anything. If i get under 7 I usually start nodding off in my afternoon lessons in college..although to be fair I start nodding off in history no matter how much sleep I've had.

[O'nus]

i've read articles before saying that too much sleep is actually detrimental - that it in fact increases fatigue more than helps to prevent it. what do you guys think about this? i just got on break from school and have been sleeping in alot lately. maybe it was helpful in getting over some sleep debt at first, but i feel like i'm pretty low on energy too. i think excersize is necessary too. i have been thinking about it for a while now, but i was thinking of trying to limit my sleep to a minimum of six hours. i guess the challenge there is getting up on time. The major problem for oversleep is that it throws off your circadian rhythm. Your internal clock is used to going to sleep at certain times and waking up at certain times and this is primarily utilized by light levels. Take a look at why you are oversleeping in relation to light levels. Are you staying up too late? If so, this can have a gross amount of residual effects. Stress is enhanced and reinforced through the attention given through staying up and adenosine levels are thrown out of production rhythm vis-a-vis your circadian rhythm. What do you think...? ~