Sleep provides many health benefits, including physical recovery, better cognitive performance, better mood, cardiovascular health, weight regulation, hormone maintenance and balance, body cell selection, a better immune system, and maintaining mental health. However, did you know that sleeping too long or too much can also have a negative impact on your health?
How Much Sleep do We Need Every Day?
Sleep needs vary by age. According to experts, the average adult needs about 7-8 hours of quality sleep every day. Children or babies need more sleep time.
- Newborns: 14–17 hours per day
- Infants: 12–16 hours per day, including naps
- Toddlers: 11–14 hours per day, including naps
- Preschool age: 10–13 hours per day, including naps
- School age: 9–12 hours per day
- Teenagers: 8–10 hours per day
Read more: Cara Mengatasi Sleep Inertia, Kelelahan saat Bangun Tidur Pagi Hari
How to Recognize When Sleeping Called Oversleeping
Sleep is considered oversleeping if an adult sleeps for more than nine hours. In fact, as mentioned earlier, normal sleep for adults is around 7-8 hours every day.
Oversleeping is often accompanied by the following signs:
- Go back to sleep after the alarm is turned off
- Wakes up but cannot get out of bed
- Waking up with a headache
- Always feel sleepy, no matter how long you sleep
- Not feeling refreshed after waking up
Read more: Bahaya Tertidur Menggunakan Lensa Kontak
The Negative Impact of Oversleeping and How to Overcome It
Oversleeping can contribute to poor health conditions, including mental health, lack of energy, feelings of weakness and lethargy, disruption of the natural sleep cycle, hormonal disruption, eating disorders, and increased several health risks such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or even premature death.
Because of all these negative effects, you need to restore good-quality sleep in the following ways:
- Consistent with a set wake-up schedule, e.g., waking up immediately after turning off the alarm and not going back to sleep
- Position the alarm in a place that requires you to stand up and get out of bed to turn off the sound
- Motivate yourself to get up early and not go back to sleep
- As soon as you wake up, wash your face with cold water and also brush your teeth so that you feel more refreshed and ready for activities
- Make the bed as soon as you get up
- Exercise lightly after waking up and washing your face. Try to enjoy the morning sunshine to increase alertness and readiness for the day.
- Consider drinking a cup of coffee without sugar. The caffeine in coffee can help increase the state of alertness
Oversleeping may be caused by certain health conditions, such as sleep apnea, or mental disorders such as depression, severe pain, hypothyroidism, or narcolepsy. In some cases, you may need a doctor's examination and treatment to overcome and prevent the negative effects of oversleeping.
If you need medical advice or consultation, you can either visit a doctor or make use of the consultation features that are available in the Ai Care application by downloading the Ai Care application from the App Store or Play Store.
Looking for information about other diseases? Click here!
- dr. Alvidiani Agustina Damanik
Cleveland Clinic (2023). Oversleeping: What Is It, Why Is It Happening and How Do I Make It Stop?. Available from: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/oversleeping/
Austin Meadows (2023). Oversleeping. Available from: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/oversleeping
Eric Suni (2023). How Much Sleep Do You Need?. Available from: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need
US Department of Health and Human Services (2023). Get Enough Sleep. Available from: https://health.gov/myhealthfinder/healthy-living/mental-health-and-relationships/get-enough-sleep
