The Symptoms of Oversleeping

Sleeping too much may seem harmless, but can cause a series of ailments which are quite detrimental to your overall health. Whether oversleeping is infrequent, the consequences can mean headaches to depression. Most adults are fine getting anywhere from six to eight hours of sleep at night. Any more sleep than that, and a person can begin to suffer from the symptoms of too much sleep. Symptoms can appear with as little as one extra hour of sleep.

However, it is not about the amount of sleep you get, but the quality of said sleep which truly affects your body. If you are not moving past the lighter stages of sleep, including REM or the dreaming state, chances are that you are not getting refreshing sleep. Stage 3 and 4 of sleep are the restorative stages of sleep, where the body can refresh and rejuvenate itself. If you are constantly dreaming, then you are not spending enough time in stage 3 and 4, and therefore are not getting restful sleep.

This lack of restful sleeping can actually lead to oversleeping, in an attempt to rejuvenate the body. When the body does not get a restful night's sleep, it feels sluggish and drained, causing a person to feel fatigued and seek out more sleep.

Oversleeping can lead to headaches which last throughout the day, making concentrating difficult and individuals irritable. This can affect your ability to concentrate on complex things and limit your memory, making work difficult to complete.

It's hard to believe, but oversleeping can actually leave you feeling more tired, affecting your overall daily performance through lethargy. You can feel very slow and lethargic throughout the day when you sleep too much. This is because of our body temperature. Sleeping for longer periods of time means that the body temperature does not rise. An increase in body temperature is what wakes us up in the mornings and gets us active; conversely, the lower of the body temperature is what makes us sleepy. At night, when our body temperature starts to dip, we get sleepy. The longer we sleep, the longer the core body temperature stays low, causing us to feel sluggish and lethargic when we do finally rise.

Oversleeping could be a sign of underlying medical conditions, like stress, depression, or sleeping disorders. Individual who sleep too much will notice a mild depression, due to decreased levels of the production of serotonin.

Oversleeping is a vicious cycle. When we wake up feeling tired and sluggish, our body will not function at optimum performance We then become anxious for more sleep, which perpetuates the cycle. The dips in serotonin can begin a depressive cycle which can spiral out of control and lead to a major depressive episode.

So how do we combat oversleeping?

Exercise is the best way to combat oversleeping and sleep irregularities. Granted, when we oversleep, we tend to gravitate toward not wanting to exercise, because we feel too tired, but this is the precise time when we should be exercising.

Exercising helps fatigue the body so that sleep becomes more about the restorative nature, rather than just sleep. Have you ever noticed how great you feel after moving a great deal of furniture around or working out hard core, particularly after a night's sleep? Your body may be sore, but you also feel refreshed. You have mental clarity and the ability to focus. You may not be able to move, but you feel different. It is because your body went and stayed in stage 3 and 4 of sleep to rejuvenate.

This is why exercise is so important. It actually improves the quality of sleep by tiring you out during the day. A brisk walk or a solid cardio work out can improve sleep almost immediately. In addition, taking a stroll around the block increases your sunlight exposure (but remember to wear sunscreen!). Exposure to sunlight reduces the production of melatonin, which raises the core body temperature, creating an alert and energized body. In turn, the reduction of melatonin during the day can help stimulate sleep later at night.

Oversleeping can lead to more serious medical conditions, primarily depression, so it is best to find the right treatment for your sleep patterns. The best and most assured way is to get plenty of exercise during the day. Exercising at 45 minutes, five times a week can improve your mood, your energy levels and your sleep patterns, as well as get you healthy! Not to mention, it's great for the waistline, particularly in bathing suit season.

If you don't know what exercise program is right for you, consult a trained professional before beginning any exercise program.