Is sleeping TOO much a myth?

Question

Can sleeping too much really leave you feeling tired or is this just a misconception?
I mean come on, is "sleeping too much" really the *cause*?

I'm not talking about being lazy and lying on the couch in the middle of the day pretending to sleep.

Some of my friends say that after they sleep too much, say over 10 hours, they feel tired. They say that if they hadn't slept for so long, they wouldn't feel as tired.

Doesn't this seem counter intuitive? Doesn't your body wake you up when it needs to? Is there even any physiological reasoning that MORE sleep is bad for your body?

Perhaps the people who "say" they feel tired after sleeping for a long time feel so because the reason they slept for so long in the first place was that they were lacking sleep and/or messed up their internal sleep schedule. And THAT caused them to feel tired EVEN after sleeping so long?

ok, but that doesn't say that MORE sleep was the CAUSE for tiredness, only that the quality was not good enough.

Answer 1

Sleeping too much day after day (not just on weekends) can be a sign of depression. In some people it is a sign that they are constantly waking up in the night. Not enough to come to consciousness but enough not to stay in deep REM sleep, where dreaming occurs. This is needed to feel rested in the morning. My husband had a sleep study done and he was waking 40 to 50 times a minute! Check with your doctor if you do not feel rested in the morning if its been going on for several weeks.

Answer 2

no, you can really sleep too long. usually your body will wake you up when it is ready, but being the lazy bullheaded people that we are we laze in bed until we fall back asleep, and when you get up you do feel groggier most of the day. people with depression experiance this alot. hope this helps.