Can Too Much Sleep Hurt Us?

[goldey]

Hi -- I am 73, have mild kidney failure, a lung disease, and since 2018 AFIB and mild heart failure. Even before the heart problems I was always tired. Now some days I am good for nothing and want to just sleep half of the day. I sleep so great & can fall asleep in like a minute. Usually 8 hours a night, sometimes 10, plus a nap, and sometimes I also fall asleep watching TV. Is it hurting my heart to sleep so much?

[Hidden]

Hi! Interesting question! Sleeping can be harmful in following situation.

Many people have AF at night, whereby the blood flow-rate goes down, to the level that the circulation gets very poor. It is often felt as the numbness of the limbs, especially the ones which were exposed to the pressure because of the body weight. But, unfortunately, during such a night, all the organs, including the brain (if any, lol) remain poorly supplied with the blood. I have clearly noticed that, after such a night, with AF, my vision is blurred in the morning, more than usual, and I need some more time to get back to awaken state. Every extra hour, spent with such a poor blood circulation, is, of course, not beneficial for the body. For that reason, I try not to sleep more than 6 hours at night, and add 1-2 hours in the afternoon.

Your situation is similar to what the sufferers describe when they have problems with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. You can have it, despite not having been diagnosed as yet...

All the best! P.

[jeanjeannie50]

Have you had your thyroid function tested Goldey? My under-active one made me feel really tired before it was diagnosed. Pills to rectify this have given me my energy back.

[CDreamer]

I don’t think 8-10 hours of sleeping with the conditions you list is anything unusual. Our bodies require sleep in order to heal. As a culture we don’t sleep enough and certainly much less than our ancestors. Excessive sleeping would be more than 12 hours a day.

I’m 70 with pacemaker, sleep apnea and an autoimmune disease and a few other complaints and some days I feel almost normal and can garden and cook and walk all in the same day and other days I can maybe do one of those things and then need to just rest the remains of the day.

Overwhelming fatigue is disabling and sometimes a cause such as under active thyroid is found and can be treated and if you have AF that is one of the first things that should be tested - and I found out recently - Parathyroid.

I also found that many of my peers nap in the afternoon and spend 8-10 hours in bed, because they need it. Some people don’t but as we age we our body is slower to recuperate and heal so needs more rest.

If there are no underlying reasons why you feel tired all the time - including medicines you may take eg: Bisoprolol made me feel dreadful the whole time - then it’s a matter of accepting your new norm. Chronic fatigue can be helped with oxygen therapy, I did 12 months of HBOT - hyperbaric oxygen therapy but you won’t get that through your doctors.

Hope some of the suggestions in the replies so far might help.

[MarkS]

Yes too much sleep can be harmful. The optimal amount of sleep has been found to be 7-8 hours per night. Sleeping 9 hours or more a night is harmful for cognitive function and memory, see: sciencedirect.com/science/a...

Also, there is a U shaped curve to the amount of sleep and health in this study of 28,000 people in England and China: firstpost.com/health/sleepi...

More than 9 hours of sleep was found to be as bad as less than 4 hours of sleep.

This report has some recommendations for trying to fix sleep issues: sleepresolutions.com/blog/i...

Having said all that, I guess most of us have sleep issues of one sort or another. I get about 6 hours a night and have a tendency to fall asleep too readily when relaxed, e.g. in front of the telly!

[Jetcat]

Hi goldey that is a interesting thing you’ve mentioned about sleep. I need a lot of sleep even at 53 years old and always have done.😡 My brother who is 50 can function great on just 5 to 6 hours a night. Is he healthier than me.? He was a member of a cycle road racing group for a lot of years and has always looked after his diet etc too but suffered a heart attack at aged 40. The Cardiologist couldn’t give him any of the usual change your lifestyle and diet advice and admitted he was just unlucky.!!! I have always slept longer than my brother but also watched what I ate because we were always interested in health from a young age especially with my mother being a nurse and telling us how important it is etc.!! I developed AFIB, my brother hasn’t. Any stress tests Iv had have been a great result even most recent 2 years ago. I personally think sleep is very very important and it’s underestimated in our busy lifestyles everyone is different. 👍