A recent study has now revealed that sleeping too much is just as bad for your health as excessive alcohol consumption and even smoking. If you’re sleeping more than 9 hours per night, on average, then you may not be doing yourself any favors. In fact, you may be shortening your life.
In Australia’s largest ever health study, called the “45 and Up Study”, it was revealed that people who are regularly sleeping more than 9 hours at a time are at an increased risk of premature death.
This risk is worsened when the oversleeping habit is combined with regular inactivity. People who are typically sedentary and who sleep too much have a 4 times greater risk of dying young.
While it is true that getting the right amount of sleep every night is critical to good health, sleeping more than 9 hours each night can have the opposite effect. It seems that there really is such thing as too much of a good thing, no matter what that thing may be.
This study is only the latest in a large number that have been building and that have shown the drawbacks of excessive sleep. Evidence has been growing steadily over the past few years to indicate that there is such thing as too much sleep. This particular study, conducted by the University of Sydney, was the first one to look specifically at the combination of sedentary lifestyles and excessive sleep. The author of the study, Dr. Melody Ding, a senior research fellow at the university, explained that while too much sleep isn’t good for you, when a lack of physical activity is thrown in, it creates a “triple whammy” effect.
As a result, Dr. Ding recommended that sleep should be taken as seriously as other factors that are commonly examined as a part of healthful lifestyles, such as nutrition and fitness. The researchers also looked into a range of other lifestyle habits that can have an impact on longevity and overall health, such as smoking and drinking as well as poor diet and physical inactivity.
What they found was that while there are many habits that can be damaging to health, when they are combined with too much sleep, they can become a much greater risk factor than they are on their own. That said, before making a specific effort to change sleeping habits, it’s a good idea to speak with a doctor.
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