I slept at 10:30 pm (yes, this is my sleep schedule now) and woke up at 8 am and I feel exhausted. Excuse me? I literally slept for almost ten hours and this is the reward? Almost sleeping in my classes? I don't understand.
To figure out if this is just me or if it's a phenomenon that plagues us all, I went deep into the internet to find answers and this is what I found out:
Getting less sleep is bad, like really bad. Which makes sense because those all-nighters I pulled in freshman year? Never again.
It makes sense that getting less sleep than you need might leave you feeling tired, but you may be surprised to learn that getting more sleep than you need may not leave you refreshed and energized.
Apparently, many people find that on days when they hit the snooze button more times than usual, they feel more lethargic and unmotivated.
It appears that any significant deviation from normal sleep patterns can upset the body's rhythms and increase daytime fatigue. This also explains why taking a short power nap is more effective than taking a long nap. Longer naps will force you to wake up in a sleep cycle that your body is not assimilated to waking up in, leaving you feeling more tired than rested.
If you find yourself waking about 10 minutes before your alarm goes off, you've found your perfect bedtime. If however, you're still relying on your alarm clock to wake you up, try moving your bedtime back 15 minutes every 3 days until you find yourself waking just a few minutes before your alarm goes off.
Once you find your body's perfect internal sleep-clock, stay consistent with it. The less you vary from the norm, the more alert you will be during the day and the better you will function.
Sleeping too much is linked with many of the same health risks as sleeping too little, including heart disease, metabolic problems such as diabetes and obesity, and cognitive issues including difficulty with memory. Similar to people who sleep too little, people who sleep too much have higher overall mortality risks.
What I'm not talking about here is the once in a blue moon night of extra sleep you might need after coming up unexpectedly short on sleep. That happens to everyone, once in a while. Hopefully, not often.
So, here you go. Definitive proof that sleeping more is actually as bad as sleeping less.
