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“Is it possible to get too much sleep?”

—Ana H., Towson University, Maryland

Not exactly. But are there circumstances in which the amount of sleep someone is requiring would be concerning? Yes.

It’s common to meet with students who are tired all the time and seem unable to get sufficient sleep. Most of the time, people who sleep a lot need to. Young adults generally need 8–9 hours a night, ideally on a fairly regular schedule (same bedtime and wake time). Straying from this can lead to “sleep debt.” Just like student loan debt, sleep debt has to be paid off eventually. The more you accrue, the more intensely your body will want to pay it down—by getting more sleep.

This starts with REM (dreaming) sleep. Do you know that sensation of falling asleep suddenly and immediately starting to dream? It can be quite disorienting, especially when it happens in class. (Not that I’d know about that. OK, maybe a little.) That’s a sleep-deprived brain desperately trying to do some catch-up.

If you don’t need the sleep, it’s usually pretty hard to sleep. I think most people are familiar with the experience of leaving school for a vacation and sleeping nonstop for the first several days. I certainly remember times that I woke up at 11 a.m., had a little something, went back to bed until 2 or 3 p.m., did a little something, took a 5 p.m. nap… you get the idea. After a few days, though, staying awake wasn’t so excruciating. After another few days, I was back to sleeping 9–10 hours a night. This was my body paying off sleep debt then resetting to a baseline rhythm. Once I’d done that, I didn’t have the intense appetite or need for sleep any more.

When people just can’t seem to get enough sleep, regardless of hours sleeping, including naps, we start to worry that there’s an underlying cause, such as mono or another illness. Psychological causes can also be at play, especially depression.

So can you get too much sleep? Usually when we feel the need to sleep more than the standard pattern, there’s a good reason. Generally, it’s a good idea to listen to your body.

If after 4–5 days of intense sleeping, especially if you don’t know why you need so much sleep and/or don’t feel that you’re getting any benefit from all the extra sleep, it might be time to talk with a medical provider and maybe get some testing done.

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