Being a heavy sleeper seems incredibly advantageous. No waking up in the middle of the night when someone flushes the loo and being able to sleep in on the weekend; heavy sleepers seem to have it made!
Waking up in the middle of the night, even if for a couple of minutes, can greatly impact the quality of your sleep. It would seem that heavy sleepers would have amazing sleep patterns and wake up fully rested - but that isn't exactly the case.
How much sleep should you be getting?
There is no specific amount of sleep that a person should have each night – this is completely unique to the person. Whereas someone might be able to fully function on 5 hours of sleep, another person will need a solid 9 hours. The NHS recommends that, on average, adults should get around 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. Heavy sleepers can struggle with this as they can easily sleep through their alarms and sleep for longer, and also struggle to get out of bed.
Are you a heavy sleeper?
What are some signs you're a heavy sleeper? You might think that you are one if you like sleeping for 9 hours every night, but that might be your sleep schedule! There are more signs to consider if you're worried that you're a heavy sleeper, and they're not all to do with sleeping for a long time!
Other signs include:
- Having trouble waking up in the morning
- Feeling sleepy throughout the day, regardless of how much sleep you got
- Finding a nap doesn't improve your tiredness
- Having a loss of appetite
- Suffering trouble with thinking or memory
- Feeling anxious
- Mental health problems
- Impaired fertility
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Inflammation
- Heart disease
- Strokes later in life
- Setting frequent alarms
- Getting into bed before midnight
- Eating breakfast within the first half an hour of waking up
- Falling asleep thinking of something you're looking forward to
- Avoiding technology for as long as possible before bed
- Dealing with any negative emotions as best as you can before sleeping
Of course, if you're concerned about your sleeping habits and how they affect your health and well-being, consult a medical professional.
Is being a heavy sleeper a good thing?
For light sleepers, there seems to be nothing better than sleeping through anything. The ability to sleep through the night undisturbed must be a true dream when you're struggling to stay asleep for a full night. But heavy sleepers face their fair share of problems, too.
Oversleeping can have various impacts on your health and well-being. While most heavy sleepers probably find they don't experience these symptoms, it's worth noting that sleeping too long can affect you. Heavy sleepers are more likely to suffer from:
A study by Michael A. Grandner and Sean P.A. Drummond took a look at the morality associated with long sleep. They highlighted the importance of getting a balanced night's sleep - not too long and not too short - and discussed the effects that oversleeping may have on us.
They found that depression, fatigue, sleep fragmentation, immune function, lack of drive, underlying disease and even the function of our organs are impacted by regularly getting too much sleep.
Sleeping in for a few hours on the weekend isn't exactly going to cause these things, but oversleeping can become extremely dangerous if you're routinely sleeping longer than you should be.
How can you stop oversleeping?
Trying to battle oversleeping and learning how to not be a heavy sleeper can seem like a daunting task at first, but it's the little things that can help you get your sleeping patterns back in order and get you back to a regular sleep length. Dr. Nerina Ramlakhan, author of Tired but Wired, says oversleeping isn't always about needing more sleep but rather being exhausted because of other factors. To prevent oversleeping, she suggests:
