We all know that we should sleep at least seven hours per night if we want to keep up with the work we have to do the next day in a productive manner, but how many sleepless nights have you spent lately on Netflix? It’s evident that the amount of sleep you get – or lack thereof – will impact your body’s efficiency on the long term.
Research shows that even though we know what our bodies need in order to proper functionally, half of the US population are neglecting every week the seven hours they need to sleep during the night. In an attempt to compensate for the lack of sleep, many people think that taking naps during the day or sleeping in on weekends will help.
In spite of feeling somewhat rewarded for being able to sleep in, this kind of sleep pattern can only harm the body and eventually cause serious health problems. According to a study in the UK, the risk of stroke and hearth conditions increases dramatically to 46 percent in people who sleep more than eight hours per night.
Moreover, always sleeping for longer than 8 hours per night might signal inflammatory conditions, infection or depression. Prof. Francesco Cappuccio of the University of Warwick, UK, says that difficulty to wake up after sleeping long hours is almost always a sign that something wrong going on.
Naps, on the other hand, are not all bad. Recommendations of the U.S. National Sleep Foundation tell us that ‘power naps’ of 10 to 20 minutes during the day can have a really beneficial effect: improving a person’s performance, mood, and alertness. But anything more than 20 minutes might cause additional sleepiness and mess your night sleep pattern.
But experts warn individuals who feel the need nap daily – people living in regions were siesta is a custom are not included here – even after a good night sleep might struggle with more serious health problems, such as sleep apnea, sleep deficiency, or cancer.
Prof. Cappuccio’s research included 16,000 men and women in the UK whose daytime sleeping patterns were analyzed, and results showed that this habit can be a sign of respiratory problems.
At the same time, the study reinforced the negative effects that come with oversleeping in the weekends. Especially when people work almost 24 hours a day during weekdays, sleeping in during weekends might seem like a good idea, but this is actually a payback for sleep deprivation.
Image Source: Fit Savvy