Sleeping..

[mediaboy]

Is it possible to have too much sleep?

I go sleep 'bout midnight, or half midnight, most nights, and wake up - with alarm - at one minute past seven. If I roll over and go back to sleep I wake up 30 minutes later feeling even worse for having had the extra time in bed.

So can you have too much sleep or is my body just complaining at my breaking routine?

[NeedMoarFarms]

I can go to bed at 2, get up at half 6 and be fine.
But if I go to bed at 10, and wake up at half 6, I'm tired all day.

I think it's messing with your routine that does it .

[santa claus]

You can have too much sleep although everyone is different in the amount of sleep they need. Age is relevant and it is said that the more intelligent need less sleep. A regular sleep pattern i....zzzzzzzzzzzzz....

[handscombmp]

My sleep paterns always messed up due to job but i find that once i get over the first half an hour of tiredness i'm fine.

[JK Ferret]

My job has wtf hours too, although my natural awakeness hours go from 2PM to about 2AM, I usually go to sleep around then whatever time I need to get up. Always feel tired too when I do wake up, though. Nothing a cup of tea and (2x) 10 min walks in the freezing cold can't change though

[samcross]

I can go with very little sleep and still feel fine in the morning.
But I do start to get tired earlyish in the evening. (Well, without caffeine)

[HSK]

If I have loads of sleep, or oversleep. I have a horrible dull headache all day, till night. If I have about 6-8 hours sleep I'm OK. But then in the early evening i start to feel tired, but I sort that out with a quick nap (30/45mins). then I'm OK till 12am.

[shadowmaster]

the more intelligent need less sleep.

I've never heard of that one before.

I suppose everyone is different, but I'm a bit like a rechargeable battery, I tend to require about 9 hours of continuous sleep a day to operate at peak efficiency, however I can go couple of weeks with about 6/7 hours a day, but by the end of those 'couple of weeks' I would become fatigued and have mild headaches. (This often the case with me in the last week of term). I would then spend the next week or so sleeping at least 12 hours a day to recharge myself. I don't know if there is any science behind it but it works for me. I could solve the some of the problem by drinking coffee but I hate the stuff and really don't want to become hooked on caffine.

I have been told though 8/9 hours of continuous undisturbed sleep is more then enough for most people. Also out of general interest, there was a research article a while back that stated the quality of sleep for men is greatly improved if they don't share beds with their partners (women).

[Funkstar]

I'm used to having quite a bit of sleep and suffer when i don't get enough. This annoys me as I feel really lazy compared to some I know that do with a lot less sleep due to being incredibly busy with work and their personal lives.

[NeedMoarFarms]

I usually get about 5 hours of sleep a night, about 8 on fridays and saturdays.

41 hours of sleep a week, not bad when you think about it .

[TheAnimus]

when i was 15-16 i went through a phase of sleeping 3-4 hours for a few nights, and then 12 hours for 2 nights.

I just couldn't sleep for longer during the week, my body would wake up at 6am, and not go to sleep till 2.

[Dmytro245]

On a week day I usually go to bed at about 12:00am and get up at 6:45am. On a day off I go to bed about 1:00am and get up about 11:00am

Is it just me or is it much harder to get up earlier on college/work/school days than it is on days off?

[Salazaar]

You can have too much sleep although everyone is different in the amount of sleep they need. Age is relevant and it is said that the more intelligent need less sleep. A regular sleep pattern i....zzzzzzzzzzzzz....

I hope you don't fall asleep at the reins Santa! It'd be a tough one telling the kids that's Santa and their presents are gone cos Santa's a narcoleptic and he crashed somewhere over the south pacific!

Seriously though, IIRC sleep comes in roughly 45min cycles though the exact length varies from person to person. Waking up in the middle of the wrong cycle makes you feel far worse than if you'd woken earlier but closer to the transition between two cycles. Or something, I'll see if I can find the original article.

[0iD]

5-6hrs kip is what I need to get by. If I have too much I feel hungover for the day. Totally spoils the decadence of 12 hour sleeps

[tiggerai]

I'm used to having quite a bit of sleep and suffer when i don't get enough. This annoys me as I feel really lazy compared to some I know that do with a lot less sleep due to being incredibly busy with work and their personal lives.

On that note, I can quite happily exist on 5-6 hours during the week (don't have a choice on that one if I want to keep my current job), but find I need the 8-9 hours (and sometimes a 12 hour "crash and burn" as I call it) at the weekends to catch up on the sleep debt I accrue during the week. If i don't get this, then I go into the next week really struggling. Doesn't help that my weekends consist usually of at least one all nighter...

I'm a morning and night person, I struggle with afternoons, but as soon as it hits about 9-10pm I'm awake again.

BUT I do have too much sometimes...(sundays with the GP on...) and it really messes with my routine.

And Salazaar - I've read/heard the same thing...

[sleepyhead]

Hmm..my body not knows how much sleep it needs.

For example, I went to sleep after midnight last night (well technically very early this morning) and naturally woke up wide awake by 4:40am. Far too early so I try and go back to bed...to oversleep my alarm clock and panic to get to work by 8am.

Other days I kip at 11:30am to wake up nicely for 7am. Other days I get up at 7am feeling absolutely crap. Tried working out how many hours sleep I need and it varies from 3 to 10 hours and no idea on correlation. So now I just sleep when I want and wake up when I need to.