Sleeping for longer can pose health risks, researchers say. (Photo : REUTERS)
While insufficient sleep has long been associated with heart disease and obesity, too much sleep can also pose as a health risk and maybe an indicator of an impending illness researchers warn.
The International Bedroom Poll in 2013 highlighted the fact that half the population in the United States slept for less than the required seven hours with many resorting to catch-up sleep during the weekends.
Sleep researcher and biomedical anthropologist Kristen Knutson at the Chicago University's Department of Medicine told the Washington Post, if a constant lack of sleep has taken place then catching up during the weekends is recommended. However, she said if individuals engage in nine to 10 hours of sleep constantly for months on end then it is needed to understand why an individual requires such a lot of sleep.
Knutson said the need for more sleep can be due to the poor quality of sleep during the resting period or a break down in the immune system could cause illness prompting the body to recover by wanting more sleep.
The publication said studies have indicated that too much time in bed can be connected with specific health problems, leading to the disruption of the body's circadian rhythms, leaving individuals prone to sickness.
Brigham and Women's Hospital's Sleep and Circadian Disorder head Charles Czeisler told CNN that he is not an advocate of "binge sleeping" to pay back sleep deprivation during the week saying it contributes to further disrupting an individual's sleep cycle.
Making a routine of over sleeping will not contribute to a healthy lifestyle according to Czeisler who says the pattern is a form of sleep bulimia which will affect sleep cycles.
The researcher recommends a consistent pattern of sleep instead of the "crash and burn" cycle of busy individuals who work to exhaustion and then sleep endless hours, adding that this pattern has adverse health implications on the well-being of the body in general.
