Too much sleep? page

[ErinF]

Is there such a thing? I can't seem to find a definitive answer to that question and thought I'd see what my PB peeps thought. I just realized I'm getting nearly 12 hours of sleep a day and think it might be why I feel so damn tired all the time. I could literally sleep all day long. I usually go to bed around 9:00 pm and wake up at 7:00 am with a one to two hour nap while the kids sleep. I just can't seem to get my energy levels to increase and this fatigue makes me so irritable!

[Gorbag]

What's your body composition then? IF you have too much body fat, you will feel exhausted due to imbalance of hormones and excessive stress on your cardiovascular system and that again produces fatigue and feel of little energy...
Anyway, sleeping 12 hours is far too much, 7 - 8 hours should be enough for most people...

[ErinF]

I'm 5'3 and 135 lbs. I'd say about 26% bf, but I'm working on getting that # lower. I guess I'll have to stay up later. I've been going to bed early because my husband wakes at 4:30 am for work and if I stay up late he also tends to want to stay up late with me.

[Knifegill]

I've seen some "study" correlating diabetes with excessive sleep, but I'm unconvinced. It seems to me that diabetics and pre-diabetics would simply be more prone to crashing and sleeping too much, not the other way around. I can't believe that excessive sleep causes diabetes. By what mechanism? It makes no sense.

12 hours is not too much. I do well on ten hours, and twelve is quite alright also. I see no reason to limit sleep. Sounds like hell, actually, to want sleep and tell yourself you can't. That's suicide in my book.

If you aren't normally a long-sleeper and suddenly find yourself sleepier than normal, then maybe something is going wrong somewhere, nutritionally or hormonally, socially, etc. But for people like me who naturally sign on for a good 10-hour stay in bed-land, it's just nature. There is no one perfect sleep pattern which applies to everyone.

[Gorbag]

I think you should do a medical check-up then, you don't seem to be much overweight either. If I were you I would try to force myself to leave the bed when your husband wakes up, just to see if you can change your sleeping pattern. Maybe take a fasted walk for an hour or so will do you good in the morning? Personally I use to do cardio from 6 am for one hour, sprinting, jogging and walking, and my energy levels have increased immensely after I started this habit a year ago...

[ErinF]

I have always been a long sleeper 10 hours normally, but lately I've just felt so tired all day and thought maybe the extra sleep might be the cause.

[iniQuity]

You could wake up a little earlier too, not necessarily the same time as your husband but maybe an hour or two after. You may adjust after a few days.

Definitely play around with different hours until you find something more suitable like 8-9. I do thin 12 is excessive, I've done it a few times lately but it's mostly catch-up sleep after a few days of shitty sleep. How do you sleep, pretty well or do you wake up a lot? If you sleep straight through the night then cutting back a few hours may be energizing. If you wake up a lot then you may want to consider finding ways to get better sleep (start with better sleep hygiene, then consider supplements - do you take magnesium? this helps a bit) as you may be sleeping a lot because you're not achieving deep sleep (and therefore, though you sleep a lot you're not actually resting)

My mom only gets about 5-6 hours a night. I used to give her a lot of flack about this, asking her to sleep more, but she insists she never feels tired. Sometimes she'll take naps and stuff but she rarely sleeps in. My dad also wakes up around 4:30 for work, she's usually up an hour or so after him and gets her day started. Sometimes she doesn't go to sleep until after midnight. The reason in her case must be that she achieves deep sleep and gets all the rest she needs in literally half the time as you.

If I were you I would consider sleep hygiene methods, like not watching tv an hour before bed, being in a pretty dark room when sleeping (and generally exposing yourself to less light a few hours before bed, no computer, etc) drinking some chamomile tea. I would do that AND get used to waking up earlier at the same time. The point would be to see if you can achieve deeper sleep while getting accustomed to sleeping less.

Good luck.

(non trolling post of the week)

[Gorbag]

I could sleep 10 hours per day when younger, but 12 hours - especially if you feel out of energy and fatigued - indicates that something may be wrong and should be checked by a doctor IMO.

[ErinF]

I've actually had this problem before, but since I started focusing on getting my vitamins through food rather than taking multi's it seemed to go away. I've been tested for thyroid problems many times and have had some more extensive tests done lately and every one comes back in normal ranges. TBH as a teen I was always tired and would regularly fall asleep in class so some fatigue FEELS normal (though I know it isn't). I've completely given up trying to find a medical reason for my fatigue because nothing ever leads to an answer. I've always been a long sleeper as I mentioned above, but I've also never felt energized after sleep and have always been somewhat tired. PB changed most of that and I have had less fatigue, but it has come back with a vengeance!

@iniQuity I think you're on to something with sleep hygiene, however it made me lol when you referred to it as that. I actually thought maybe I wasn't taking a long enough shower or something. I have to work on just about everything you mentioned, I actually never really thought about those things until you mentioned them so thank you! As far as my quality of sleep, I'm sure its pretty bad, I wake up at least 5 times a night to turn over, but I immediately fall back to sleep. Waking up earlier is probably the most challenging thing ever for me. I am a complete monster if I wake up before 8 am, but if it would help with energy I'll try it. I'll have to find an alarm that will actually wake me up though, I can sleep through just about anything including my two toddlers crying. Maybe I'll get my husband to wake me up as he leaves for work. It would be great to actually get my workout done before the kids wake up.

[iniQuity]

Hmm, well waking up a few times is not so uncommon since we sleep in cycles. Still, I think it's worth to see if you can achieve better sleep. You likely never thought you weren't resting well since you slept so long, but now you know the difference between sleeping and resting.

Me for example, I can't nap worth a shit because it takes me too long to fall asleep. I used to work with a guy that would nap for about 15 mins during our half hour breaks and he'd feel fantastic upon waking because he was able to fall asleep fast. This was extremely strange to me. Even at night I sometimes struggle to fall asleep because I think too much about dumb shit. For the longest time actually I've had issues falling asleep because I find sleeping to be weird. It may sound stupid but I consider not doing anything for 6-8 hours to be totally strange. I think for me it's a control and vulnerability issue so accepting sleep has always been complicated for me and therefore my sleep hasn't always been great. It's gotten better since I've been practicing those sleep hygiene methods, as well as telling myself to just STFU and get some shut-eye. It's amazing how stubborn we can be though, you'd reckon I'd have gotten over that thought a long time ago but nope.