The Disadvantages of Oversleeping

The average adult needs between seven and 10 hours of sleep, with some people functioning on less and others on more. While you might enjoy to sleep in on the occasional weekend or day off, it is not recommended that you sleep excessively because of health and behavioral issues than can arise from oversleeping. Try to keep your oversleeping to a minimum in order to prevent these issues from occurring.

Tiredness and Obesity

• It might seem like a backwards concept, but getting too much sleep can actually make you feel more tired. This is because the longer you sleep, the lower your body temperature becomes, which can ultimately lead to extreme tiredness and lethargy when you do wake up. Unfortunately with oversleeping, you are more at risk of obesity because it takes your body longer to recover from the excessive sleep and begin burning calories throughout the day.

Depression

• Depression is a common disadvantage to those who oversleep. This might be because of the fact that the longer you sleep, the less physical activity you are getting, thus a decreased amount of endorphins to fuel your mood. When you wake up from a long sleep, you feel "out of it" for a longer period of time, have a harder time getting energy for your day and might become withdrawn and anti-social as a result. This can lead to psychological effects such as depression.

Diabetes and Heart Disease

• Studies have shown that diabetes and heart disease are linked to oversleeping. A rather large amount of people with these conditions are excessive sleepers. While the cause for this might be unknown, the fact that obesity is a risk for those who oversleep continuously puts any person at risk of developing diabetes and heart disease.

Headaches

• Headaches are a common occurrence of those who oversleep, especially in the hours upon waking from a very long sleep of more than nine hours. Sleeping for long periods of time has a negative impact on the neurotransmitters in your brain that are active during sleep, which cause you to wake with a throbbing migraine or pounding headache. The persistent headaches only make it harder for you to adjust and be ready to start your day.

Lifestyle

• With the headaches, lethargy, depression and overall bad mood that is associated with oversleeping, your daily lifestyle can become erratic from these unhealthy sleeping patterns. As you continue to sleep for longer periods of time, you give yourself less time to get ready in the morning, go to work or school or get things done. This will cause you to be complacent and regretful about the long sleeping hours, which might result in being unmotivated and more tired -- a vicious cycle to get wrapped up in.