When our bodies don’t get enough sleep we can feel lethargic, irritable and not have the energy to get through our day. So, does oversleeping make you fat? However getting too much sleep has been found to also be detrimental causing weight gain as well as putting yourself at risk for developing chronic and potentially deadly diseases.
Experts agree that to maintain health an average of seven to eight hours of sleep per night is optimal. Anything over nine hours will trigger a disruption in the body’s natural 24 hour biological cycle called the circadian rhythm and when this occurs over sleepers can experience a wide number of side effects as their bodies struggle to correspond with the correct time which can lead to a host of health issues one of them being a higher body weight. A Canadian study which followed the lifestyle habits of 276 people over a period of six years found a significant correlation between the increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and oversleeping. It also found that those who consistently slept over nine hours per night were shown to be 21% more likely than normal sleepers to develop obesity.
Oversleeping can not only make you fat, its insidious ramifications can affect your body and your mind and lead to an early death.
5 Reasons how oversleeping can affect your weight and your health
1. Oversleeping can lead to obesity.
If Your are overweight and trying to lose weight the first thing you need to do is to assess your sleeping habits and stick to a healthy sleeping plan. This entails aiming to sleep for an optimal period of 7 to 9 hours per night. However experts say seven hours is the optimal time recommended. Arizona State University professor, Shawn Youngstedt has said that; The lowest mortality and morbidity is with seven hours.’ Oversleeping impacts how the body stores weight. Experts believe that the weight gain that oversleepers amass does not change even when taking into account dieting and exercising. Ba
2. Oversleeping can affect your mental health
Oversleeping has been linked with a higher risk of depression, mood swings and cognitive impairment. Too much sleep has also been found to increase memory loss. Other research has tied oversleeping to Alzheimers disease and a large Spanish study found that long sleepers may be at risk of developing Dementia.
3. Oversleepers risk the development of Type 2 Diabetes
Sleeping more than is necessary can substantially increase your risk of contracting Type 2 Diabetes, a disease with severe implications for your health. This is backed up in a November 2015 issue of Diabetologia that came to the conclusion that staying in bed for an extra two hours could be linked to the development of this chronic ailment. It has also been found that people who sleep for longer than eight hours a night, had higher fasting blood sugar levels on average.
4. Back pain issues due to oversleeping
If you lie for long periods of time you can develop back pain or if you already suffer from it it can aggravate the condition. Lying for too long in bed can cause your muscles to stiffen which in turn causes pain.
5. Heart conditions can be triggered by oversleeping
Studies have shown that those who sleep for longer hours are at a higher risk of developing a heart condition. Research from the University of Colorado Boulder has found that getting too much sleep can boost your risk of suffering a heart attack, even if you are healthy. According to another study published in the Journal of the American College of Cariology, everyone, even those who have a genetic predisposition for heart disease can mitigate their risk of having a heart attack by not oversleeping and getting between the recommended levels of seven to nine hours of sleep per night.
Adapting a healthy sleeping pattern and not oversleeping is an important component in losing weight, keeping it off and staying healthy. Set an alarm to get you up at the right time and avoid the indulgence of sleeping in. Beauty sleep is important but too much sleep can be negative leading to weight gain and lower mortality.