How Oversleeping Destroys Your Body

We all know that sleep deprivation is bad for us. However, studies suggest that oversleeping might also damage our bodies? What happens if we oversleep? And how can we avoid oversleeping?

In 1963, a teenager named Randy Gardner broke the world record by staying awake for over 290 hours. William Dement, a famous sleep scientist studied how his body changed through sleep deprivation. Sleep normally involves REM and non-REM phases which help our bodies to recover. If we do not sleep (and are sleep deprived), however, our body has several issues. Neurotransmitter levels are dysregulated and we start to hallucinate, be less focused and experience other symptoms.

Similar to lacking sleep, oversleeping also damages our bodies. Oversleeping or hypersomnia is characterized by the urge to sleep and symptoms such as headache or constantly being tired. Roughly 4% of people suffer from chronic oversleeping. Although oversleeping can be caused by depression, an underlying sleep disorder or other syndromes, we can also just get used to oversleep - but that is not healthy. Oversleeping is associated with a variety of diseases including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes or Alzheimers disease. Furthermore, oversleeping is associaed with obesity, a decreased fertility and a shorter lifespan (30% higher mortality). There are several reasons for this phenomenon including chronic inflammation, an altered metabolism, or hormones or unidentified underlying diseases.
Still, sleep deprivation is also detrimental. Already over 70 million people in the United states sleep to little. And this is bad. It is proposed that 20% of all injuries that result from car accidents can be associated with sleep deprivation. Similar to oversleeping, sleep deprivation is also associated several diseases including diabetes. Studies also suggest that sleep deprivation might cause lasting brain damages but there are more studies needed. If we want to sleep properly we should try to have a sleep schedule, workout during the day and avoid bright lights before we go to sleep.

0:00-0:56 Intro
0:56-4:08 Beginnings of Sleep Science
4:08-8:50 The Dangers of Oversleeping
8:50-11:17 Sleep Deprivation Makes Brain Damages
11:17-12:36 How We Should Sleep

References:

Images:
William dement derived from Ed Souza/Stanford News Service
Roger federer by Tatiana, CC BY-SA 2.0

Music:
Title: Black heat by Ross Budgen (CC BY 4.0)
Title: Filaments by Scott Buckley d (CC BY 3.0)
Light Sting by Kevin MacLeod (CC By 4.0)
Title: Buddha by Kontekst
Genre and Mood: Hip Hop & Rap + Bright

About Clemens Steinek:
CLEMENS STEINEK is a PhD student/youtuber (Sciencerely) who is currently conducting stem cell research in Germany.

[linnaeusshecut]

Young doctors are required to go without 8 hours sleep in hospitals all over the U.S. Sleep deprived doctors are asked to make major decisions by an industry that should know better.

[valentina]

I used to suffer from depression induced hypersomnia, I slept between 10-16 hours a day. Even though I always got up for lunch and dinner, I still ended up 15 kg underweight, I was constipated and tired all the time but I had amazing dreams! I had intense lucid dreams that were more like an alternate reality where I didn't exist rather than actual dreams. While I'm happy I get to enjoy sunlight again, I do miss experiencing those cool dreams lol

[captainteamcarry]

Too much sleep is bad for you
Not enough sleep is bad for you.
Everyone needs varying amounts of sleep.
So basically we should sleep when we're tired and wake up when we're rested.
WHAT A CONCEPT

[zhulikkulik]

I remember sleeping for over 12 hours sometimes when I was a teenager. Also not sleeping for 40+ hours during the same period of time because of exams at college.
I'm fascinated how strong a young body is. If I try something like this now (28) I'll probably die 😅

[skiddsy]

Does oversleeping cause problems, or do other problems cause oversleeping? I know my chronic illness has made me sleep more.

[Washyourpoptarts]

I definitely was a hypersomniac for a while. I was sleeping 11-13 hours, waking up severely tired, going back to sleep even after that. Now I get 8 hours, 12-8AM, and I’ve been feeling so much better since

[lucianaromulus]

Correlation doesn't equal Cause. I think this is dependent on the individual...I think this study or whatever is coming to this conclusion because many chronic issues lead to over sleeping so it's not actually the sleep that's the problem. I think it's much better to oversleep than under...but yes moderation is key...which is true for damn near everything. I have fibromyalgia and if I don't get on average 9-10 hours a day I'm pretty much effed.

[APPLESHAMPOO]

8:12 You mentioned that oversleeping can be caused by substance abuse, depression or a sleep disorder. Out of the three mentioned, two of those lead to premature death for unrelated reasons. With substance abuse problems, for example, you are likely to engage in risky behavior such as driving under the influence, or overdosing. When it comes to depression, one of the most common side effects of it is substance abuse and/or taking your own life. The fact that people are 30% more likely to die if they oversleep has little to do with sleep. You are discussing a side-effect of the aformentioned.

[xCherryx]

people can always sleep 7-9 hours but my personal experience shows that I feel way more refreshed when I'm in sync with my natural sleeping pattern instead of my work schedule 😅

[berryberrykixx]

Something that should have been mentioned is that there are those of us out there with a disorder called Delayed Sleep-Wake Phase Disorder. Many people with this disorder also tend to have ADHD/ADD or fall on the autism scale as well (for me, all three). Right now, for me, it is almost 2am, and I'm just getting tired, and I will usually sleep until noon-ish. I have never had any issues associated with sleeping too much or too little, except for being tired in school because classes started so early. Other than that, wonderful video!

[nuadha]

Back when I lived with my family, I would sleep somewhere between 12-20 hours a day due to depression and just...fear of my family. Ever since I moved away, I still oversleep a tiny bit at times, usually a bit over 9 hours and sometimes, I sleep under 7 hours. Soooo, I never really get the perfect amount of sleep needed. It's actually really hard for me to maintain a normal sleeping schedule.

[finality]

Oversleeping undersleeping. When I oversleep, I feel well rested, can focus way easier, better memory, better mood, better everything.

Undersleeping, everything starts to fall apart.

[tuseroni]

"people who regularly oversleep have 30% shorter lifespans" one common cause of chronic oversleeping mentioned was "depression"...how many of those people had shorter lifespans because they killed themselves?

[harukami]

As a severely depressed person who also oversleeps a lot, I honestly have no problem with oversleeping reducing the lifespan.

[ilyachap]

Me oversleeping on antidepressants: guess I'll die

[Trazynn]

"Carries an increased risk" is innuendo to have your causality cake and eat it at the same time. It's a correlation. It could mean that people who are already at risk of other diseases are sleeping more as well.

[natashaorr]

I’m not sure if it was depression but I would prefer my dreams than reality for a few years. Especially after graduating because I now had the time and covid happened. Extremely lucid dreams. I fell I love with someone in my dreams and I would have the same dreams again and again so I could go back and do things differently or do them all over again. Sometimes I wanted answers from my subconscious, other times I wanted it to sweep me away. I felt like I was actually going somewhere.

[VoidedMirror]

I've been told not getting enough sleep can kill me. Now sleeping too much can also kill me. 😭

[SKoGoMoney]

A week ago I was suffering from extreme sleep deprivation and extreme dehydration. I didn’t sleep at all for at least 3.5 days. This was one of the most painful and scariest moments in my life. To put it in perspective I have peptic ulcers and I puke until there is absolutely nothing left, not even bile. I got stuck in a loop where I couldn’t even hold water down, and would just puke it right back up. Because of the pain I was in, no matter how bad I wanted to sleep, I just couldn’t.

As for the effects of sleep deprivation, I began hallucinating “spiders” everywhere on the second day. They would scurry everywhere I look and would even combine into these mega spiders. But day 3, that’s where it really got scary. I became dyslexic. It’s very hard to describe, somehow my brain would scramble everything to something that makes absolutely no sense, it would completely scramble to the extent it wasn’t even scrambling letters, but words. For example: “This sentence right here.” Would look something completely non-sensical like “a hxdjs7 j 02h so l.” Thankfully I was able to force myself to chug water and get some sleep. But it was scary to think I was potentially getting BRAIN DAMAGE from that!!

Edit: I think the extreme effects I suffered were from the culmination of both sleep deprivation and dehydration. If I was JUST sleep deprived, I think it would not have been as severe!

[DagnieJ]

I’m watching this video as someone who has been diagnosed with hypersomnia, narcolepsy, and severe clinical depression (chemical imbalance).

As testing showed, I automatically go into REM sleep and spend the entire night in REM, never truly achieving a deep sleep. Since my brain is active all day and all night, I feel I am constantly running on half-battery. And since I spend all night dreaming, I have a poor grasp of time and memory problems. The day before feels much longer ago than for others.

I wish I weren’t so tired right now.