WHAT OVERSLEEPING DOES TO YOUR HEALTH

“To be always intending to make a new and better life but never to find time to set about it is as to put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day to the next until you're dead”-  Og Mandino.

Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death. Sleep they say is as vital tool for survival just as food entails , because your immune system repairs and strengthens while you sleep, regularly sleeping over eight hours may be a sign of a serious health risk. While it is important to get enough sleep, it is possible to get too much sleep, which can affect your health.

While sleeping, chances are, you’re more likely to burn the midnight oil to finish all your work than you are to pass up dinner, as your immune system repairs and strengthen up more while you sleep. But chronic lack of sleep can lead to a host of health problems such as high blood pressure, obesity, depression, irregular hormone production, a weakened immune system, memory lapses, constant irritability, and decreased concentration and reaction times.

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it. Lack of sleep can make you constantly want to eat more, or persistently feel like you’re not hungry. It throws off your internal clock, resulting in abnormal feelings which are why so many people lose or gain weight during periods of sleeplessness.

Your brain needs sleep to refresh and regenerate. Without it, your short-term memory may be impaired, which is why pulling an all-nighter rarely yields better results than getting quality shut-eye. However, come Friday or Saturday night, you may work a party, but as long as you’re sleep-deficient, coming up with witty or even coherent, one-liners is out of the question.

While oversleeping feels like a treat on the weekend, regularly sleeping too much is actually a sign that there may be a medical problem at play. People who sleep more than eight hours a day have a higher risk for a stroke compared with people who sleep six to eight hours. Speculation has it that long nights of sleep may be linked to increased inflammation, which can eventually lead to cardiovascular problems.

If you like to sleep in on the weekends, don’t fret. Occasionally spending extra time in bed is likely not a bad sign, experts say, but when it becomes a regular habit, it might be worth checking out. For now, the researchers of the new study say their findings need further investigation, and priority should be given to understanding the underlying mechanisms. Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.