Scientists explained whether too much sleep is really bad for health

News feeds and social networks regularly remind us: lack of sleep destroys health, increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, accelerates aging, and impairs brain function. An international team of scientists has questioned the opposite extreme - regularly sleeping more than nine hours.

As BAKU.WS reports, this was announced by The Conversation portal.

Sleep is as fundamental an element of health as nutrition and physical activity. During night rest, the body restores muscles, forms memory, and regulates emotions. Recommendations for adults remain unchanged: seven to nine hours. Chronic sleep deprivation is associated with an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, anxiety disorders, immune disorders, and even early mortality. This is an established fact. But the question of whether excess sleep is dangerous remained controversial for a long time.

A large analysis of 79 studies in which people were observed for at least a year showed: those who sleep less than seven hours have an increased risk of death during the study period by about 14%. However, people who regularly spend more than nine hours sleeping showed an even higher rate - about 34%. Similar data were reported in previous meta-analyses. At first glance, this looks like direct evidence of the harm of long sleep. But specialists emphasized: cause and effect may be confused here.

As researchers explained, prolonged sleep often accompanies existing diseases. A person may sleep longer because the body is trying to recover, not because it's a harmful habit. Chronic pain, depression, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular pathologies, medication side effects - all these make people spend more time in bed. At the same time, their sleep quality is often low, and they try to compensate for it with duration. In other words, prolonged sleep can be a symptom of ill-being, not the factor that causes it.

Scientists reminded that sleep norms are individual. Teenagers, for example, physically need eight to ten hours, and their night-shifted rhythm is physiological. Elderly people increase the time spent in bed, but not the need for sleep itself. For most adults, seven to nine hours remain a healthy guideline. Equally important are a consistent schedule, absence of night awakenings, and good sleep quality - it affects health even more strongly than duration.

Specialists advise not to rush to panic. In conditions where many people are sleep-deprived for years, caring about getting enough sleep at least within the recommendations is much more important than fear of exceeding the norm. But if a person suddenly starts sleeping ten to twelve hours and still wakes up tired, this is a reason to listen to oneself and discuss the problem with a doctor. In this case, sleep may be the first signal that processes requiring attention are occurring in the body.

So far, the main conclusion is simple: sleeping enough is beneficial, sleeping excessively is not dangerous in itself, but may indicate hidden problems. And the best thing you can do for health is to establish a routine, reduce stress, get more daylight during the day, and create comfortable conditions for night rest.