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Longer sleep on the holidays? Sleeping more than eleven hours is unhealthy
Is often long sleep harmful to health? Is it possible to catch up on lost sleep? Many people are already looking forward to the Christmas holidays. The free time spend some people, finally finally sleep well. Thus, in the morning long slept and if time permits, makes some even a little nap after lunch. Then comes the question of whether one can actually sleep too much. And if it can be harmful to sleep too much? Some sleep experts commented on this topic to the German Press Agency (dpa).
Are you one of those people who have to get up very early every working day? If so, you are looking forward to the weekend or upcoming holidays, to finally be able to sleep again. On such days, we have the opportunity to not set the alarm clock and just sleep well relaxed. Some will use the free time to take a little nap in the afternoon. There is good news and bad news for such people. It is not possible to sleep too much, but if you regularly sleep twelve hours at a time, you may have a health problem.
Sleep well or catch up on sleep? What are facts and what myths? Image: Rasulov - fotolia Catch up on lost sleep
If people have to get up early every day due to their work, you usually want to sleep late at the weekend. So we try to catch up on the week-long sleep deficit. That really works. The catching up of missing sleep is possible, explained the sleep specialist Professor Peter Young to the dpa. However, people could only catch up on sleep to some degree, it was not possible not to sleep all week and then simply sleep through the entire weekend, added the director of the Münster University Hospital for Sleep Medicine and Neuromuscular Diseases. However, there are also foreign experts who believe that irregular sleep endangers our health and increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes. The scientists at the University of Pittsburgh found that irregular sleep has a severe negative impact on our health.
Is it possible to go to sleep??
When work starts again in the New Year, the days become more stressful and the nights shorter. For this reason, we could actually just stay longer in bed over the holidays and, as it were, "fall asleep". If you are well rested in advance, it would be quite possible for you to get along with a little less sleep in the next two days, explained Alfred Wiater, chairman of the German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine (DGSM). However, it would not be possible to "go to sleep" over a longer period, which would be prevented by our internal clock, added Mr. Wiater in a conversation with the dpa.
To sleep too long
It is not possible in general to sleep too much, one can spend only too many hours in bed, said Professor Ingo Fietze from the Sleep Medicine Center of the Berlin Charité dpa. Man sleeps as much as his body needs. A lot of sleep is not necessarily harmful, but it can be an indication that the person is suffering from another condition, added Professor Young. If you do not have a disturbed sleep or are experiencing a serious illness, they wake up automatically when you have slept enough. There are also people who really need ten hours of sleep regularly. But according to the German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine this is rather the exception, only about two percent of all men and 1.5 percent of all women are affected. For such late sleepers, however, there is bad news, because those affected would have up to 24 percent increased mortality (mortality), said Wiater of the DGSM.
How much sleep is normal??
How much sleep is optimal for us? Most people sleep about seven to eight hours a night. However, the ideal sleeping time is different for every person, said Wiater in a conversation with the dpa. According to Prof. Fietzev from the Berlin Charité, about seven to 7.5 hours of sleep were optimal, with the maximum amounting to about nine hours. You can sleep well for a few days, even "pre-sleep" or "sleep" is not really problematic, the human body gets only as much sleep as he really needs, explained Prof. Fietzev on.
Facts about the afternoon nap
Surely you also know people, or may even belong to yourself, the midday like to take a little nap. But is this afternoon nap also healthy? Especially at Christmas time, many people eat large amounts of greasy food. If we ate too much of the Christmas goose, it can be time that you get a little tired. At such moments, a little nap on the sofa seems to be really seductive. Of course, heavy food makes you tired, but a nap does not really help at this moment. Instead, sufferers should rather take a long walk, said Prof. Young the dpa. So the heavy meal is broken down faster, as if we just lie down on our sofa after dinner and make a small "digestive nap". It's different with a so-called "power nap". Such a short sleep at lunchtime, was really restful and encouraging strength, explained Herbert Wiatter of the DGSM. In such a short sleep, however, it is important that the effective sleep time is not longer than 30 minutes. The "Powernap" must necessarily be stopped before the deep sleep phase to develop its restorative effect.
Alcohol and its effect on our sleep
If you've ever been drunk, you may have noticed that you fall into bed like a stone. Mostly, the drunk has no real problems with falling asleep. But is drunk sleep healthy and restful? Alcohol certainly promotes falling asleep, but he prevents sleep through, so a restful sleep is not possible, said Mr. Wiater from the DGSM in a conversation with the dpa. (As)