Sleeping too little or sleeping too much? Both will affect your cognitive functioning
We all know how sleeping is important and having too little sleep affects our cognitive functioning. We have trouble with concentrating and focusing, remembering things, our body is slower and lacks energy, our health suffers, and we are all in all pretty cranky. I don't know about you, but I sure am. Recent research shows how having too much sleep, surprisingly, has the same effect on us. Just as you can have too little sleep, you can have too much of it too. How long do you sleep and do you find that amount oh hours enough for your normal functioning?
CC0 image, Pixabay, author: Engin_Akyurt, adapted by me
Today we will focus on both, sleeping too much and too little and what it does to our bodies. We will also go over the quality and quantity of sleep just as we will learn some tips and tricks when it comes to having a good night sleep. There will be references to scientific research to back some claims but always keep in mind that your body is not the same as everyone else's so listen to it and monitor your reactions.
When it comes to quantity, most people should aim for the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night even dough not many of them are actually following that advice. Keep in mind that younger bodies (ages 18 to 25 approximately) need less sleep so 6 hours is usually enough and as we grow older we tend to sleep longer. There are people who need up to 12 hours of sleep to feel rested and some that are just fine with only 5. Those preferences are individual and many of us make a mistake of forcing our bodies to something that is not good for us. To some, sleeping 8 hours is too much and has the same effect as sleeping too little.
Quality is just as important
as quantity...
According to scientific consensus, good quality sleep means falling asleep in 30 minutes or less after you decide so, having no more than one awakening during the night and if you do wake up, drifting back to sleep within 20 minutes. Good sleep quality will impact your mood more than quantity will but they are both needed for your well being.
To ensure quality, avoid drinking caffeine and alcohol before sleep, movies that are too intense for your thought patterns and remove electronic devices from the bedroom. Turn the light off. Try to have your bedroom (if possible) only for sleeping and nothing else. Well... Sexual activities are welcome but beside them, nothing else. Train your mind in a way that when you enter the bedroom at night, it knows it is time for sleep and help yourself with relaxing activities before it. Wear comfortable clothes and sleep on a bed that best fits your needs, that includes a pillow too. Find that one which works best for you. Just because a tv commercial says the pillow is miraculous, it does not mean it actually is. Some people even sleep without a pillow and have great sleep quality.
To get some quality info about sleep duration, read this multidisciplinary expert panel comprised of both sleep experts and experts in other areas of medicine, physiology, and science that provided an update to the National Sleep Foundation’s sleep duration recommendations:
National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary by Max Hirshkowitz, PhD, Kaitlyn Whiton, MHS Kaitlyn Whiton, Kaitlyn Whiton, Steven M. Albert, PhD, Cathy Alessi, MD, Oliviero Bruni, MD, Lydia DonCarlos, PhD, Nancy Hazen, PhD, John Herman, PhD, Eliot S. Katz, MD, Leila Kheirandish-Gozal, MD, MSc, David N. Neubauer, MD, Anne E. O’Donnell, MD, Maurice Ohayon, MD, DSc, PhD, John Peever, PhD, Robert Rawding, PhD, Ramesh C. Sachdeva, MD, PhD, JD, Belinda Setters, MD, Michael V. Vitiello, PhD, J. Catesby Ware, PhD, Paula J. Adams Hillard, MD
We will get into what happens at what stage of sleep but first, let's focus on the circadian rhythm. It is a sleep/wake cycle responsible for your need to wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night, a daily pattern of different chemicals and hormones rising and falling over 24 hours. Melatonin as a hormone is very often mentioned here, and for good reason because its level starts to rise in the late afternoon and then falls in the early hours of the morning. Bright lights or screens in the evening disrupt melatonin production. That is why I told you to remove electronics and turn the light off in the bedroom when you go to sleep. To trick your body a little, in those situations when you have to get up really early, turn the light right ON, it will help your cycle to shift earlier.
People are most alert while the sun is shining
and need to sleep when it’s dark outside.
Our circadian biological clock is controlled by a part of the brain called the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN). It is a group of cells in the hypothalamus that respond to light and dark signals. Light first hits the optic nerve of the eye and then travels to the SCN signaling the "internal clock" that it is time to wake up. SCN also sends signals to raise body temperature and produce hormones such as cortisol. Any change in your daily routines may disrupt SCN, jet lag and sleep longer on the weekends are the best examples.
To help your circadian rhythm to function properly there are some tricks you can use. Sticking to a consistent sleep schedule is the best advice you could follow and no matter how much you want to sleep over the weekend, don't. It is much better to sleep a bit longer each day (a couple of minutes) than to sleep a couple of hours longer one day a week. Morning walks and exposure to light will help your brain to realize it should be awake and of course, no technology and lights in the evenings. Was that the third time I told you this so far? Maybe if I mention it a couple of more times by the end of the post, you will remember it. Repetitio est mater studiorum, right?
5 stages of sleep
We have been aware of sleep stages ever since 1950’s. Before that time, it was believed that sleeping was a completely passive functioning. Now we know that the brain is actually quite active during certain stages that are often put into two categories: NREM (non-REM sleep, includes 4 stages) and REM (1 stage that got its name after rapid-eye-movement).
Stage One starts from a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes after we lie down and lasts up to seven minutes on average. The brain produces alpha and theta waves and eye movements slow down. This is the stage that we can be in during the day too and is often present in meditation practice.
The second stage of sleep lasts about 20 minutes and it is the stage after which "power nap" sleep should be over. The brain produces sudden increases in brain wave frequency known as sleep spindles, the temperature begins dropping and heart rate starts slowing down.
Stage three is sometimes mixed with Stage four because it is the beginning of it. Delta Waves begin to emerge during stage three but are mostly occuring during stage four that lasts about 30 minutes. This is the stage from which waking up is most difficult and the stage when the body repairs muscles and tissues, stimulates growth and development, boosts immune function, and builds up energy for the next day.
Now we come to the last Fifth stage or REM sleep that happens for the first time some 90 minutes after going to sleep and lasts for about an hour. On average, adults have five to six REM cycles each night. This is the most active stage. Heart rate and blood pressure increase, breathing becomes fast, irregular, and shallow, dreams appear, and the brain consolidates and processes information from the day before so that it can be stored in our long-term memory. The voluntary muscles become paralyzed as a built-in protective measure to keep us from harming ourselves while experiencing what is happening in our dreams.
It is NOT 1,2,3,4,5...
These cycles do not change in 1,2,3,4,5 pattern. Sleep begins in stage one and progresses into stages 2, 3, and 4 but those stages are then repeated and after REM we usually go back to stage two with each new REM lasting more than the previous one. Oh and, contrary to what is often believed, dreams take as long as they actually seem. They do not last for just a couple of seconds and yes, just as you have more REM cycles during the night, you can have more than one dream.
Now that we have covered some basics and went over the importance of sleep, its cycles and differences between them, let's see if there is really a difference between having too little and too much sleep. According to one of the most extensive studies conducted on the link between sleep duration and cognition, it is all the same if you sleep too much or too little, your cognitive abilities will be impaired.
Oversleeping is just as detrimental
to your cognition as sleeping too little.
For most people, sleeping too much seems imposible. We are living fast lives, getting up early and staying awake until late at night. To all of us, one of the cures is the "power nap" that we can take during the day. Researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK reported that taking a power nap can improve domains of cognitive function associated with processing information below conscious awareness. You can read all about it here:
Nap‐mediated benefit to implicit information processing across age using an affective priming paradigm by Netasha Shaikh and Elizabeth Coulthard
I am one of those who can sleep anywhere, anytime and really loves it but since I often can not, there are times when I try to compensate and sleep longer than I should. I did notice that it never works for the best because I feel tired and slow when I wake up so let's get back to that oversleeping thing...
Up until now, empirical evidence associating too much sleep with specific cognitive deficits have been scarce but according to "World’s Largest Sleep Study" of 16,812 participants around the globe, getting too much or too little sleep both have negative consequences on brain function. You can read the full paper about it here:
Dissociable effects of self-reported daily sleep duration on high-level cognitive abilitiesby Conor J Wild, Emily S Nichols, Michael E Battista, Bobby Stojanoski, Adrian M Owen
Sleeping an average of seven to eight hours per night
is the "Goldilocks" duration of sleep needed
During the online survey, participants filled in details about their sleep habits and then took 12 different cognitive tests designed to measure three specific domains: Short-term memory or STM, Reasoning, and Verbal ability. The results showed how reasoning and verbal abilities were more strongly affected by too much or too little sleep than short-term memory performance. The reason why too much sleep influences high-level cognitive abilities still remains a mystery and researchers can only speculate about depression, failing health, increased morbidity risk, and decreased physical fitness as potential triggers for sleeping too long but there is no actual scientific consensus on the reasons for consequences of too much sleep.
"We found that the optimum amount of sleep to keep your brain performing its best is seven to eight hours every night and that corresponds to what the doctors will tell you need to keep your body in tip-top shape, as well. We also found that people that slept more than that amount were equally impaired as those who slept too little "
-first author Conor Wild
Too little or too much, it does not matter, you should be getting the right amount of sleep that you need because you can have problems with impaired reasoning, problem-solving, and communications skills. So tell me, are you sleeping as you should? Is your sleep good enough when it comes both to quality and quantity?
To read more about this topic, check out these REFERENCES:
How is Sleep Quantity Different than Sleep Quality? from sleep.org
Sleep drive and your body clock from sleepfoundation.org
What is the Sleep/Wake Cycle? from sleep.org
Circadian Rhythm and Your Body Clock from sleep.org
Stages of Sleep from psychcentral.com
Understanding Sleep Cycles: What Happens While You Sleep
Daytime Naps Boost Brain Power in Mysterious Ways from psychologytoday.com
Does Too Much Sleep Have Negative Repercussions? from psychologytoday.com
Image sources AND LICENCES in order of appearance:
- all images used in this post are free for commercial use, they are royalty free with the links to original images provided under them
- line divider that I use is from FREE CLIPART LIBRARY, and is here
- title pictures are made by me using the CC0 image from pixabay that can be found here
- my bitmoji avatar was created on https://www.bitmoji.com/, visit the site to create yourown
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@zen-art I am definitely one of those peeps who need more sleep!! But haha, guilty of staying up late and sleeping in 😂
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My hubby is like that too, he can switch day for night 😂
Great post. Sleep is one of my favourite things! However I do question one aspect of the last piece of research you mention, which looked at sleep duration and its effect on high-level cognitive abilities. It certainly seems likely that not getting enough sleep would impair various mental functions, but the research doesn't take into account the possibility that it might not be the excessive sleep that impairs reasoning and verbal skills, but that an outside factor might cause both the excessive sleep and the impairment to reasoning and verbal skills.
I'm reading this the morning after I've slept for about 10 and a half hours, and my brain feels like mush. But I don't think the long sleep caused my mushy brain syndrome. I suspect that the effect of a crazy stressful week, followed by four hours of indoor bouldering last night where (egged on by my bouldering friends) I pushed my body to the limit, getting a bloody blister on my hand and a bruised knee in the process, caused the brain mush and triggered the excessive sleep. After that, I had a bath and collapsed into bed, falling asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I think the 10.5 hours of sleep was necessary and restorative, and my brain would have been even more mushy without it!
There is definitely more research needed, this one just opened the door for many more to come. Thank you for your views on this.
Unfortunately, too little people know the importance of sleeping the right number of hours and not oversleeping. There are those who love sleeping even 12 hours a day and then the others who barely get few hours of sleep and then they are surprised of how many health issues appear. I'm happy to read about this subject again though and be more careful with my sleeping schedule. :)
Hopefully, people got reminded and will take closer care of their sleeping habits now. Thank you for our kind feedback.
Sleep really is such a huge part of overall health and wellness. Sometimes we don't realize that until our sleep patterns are impacted. I occasionally get hormonal insomnia a few nights during the month and it definitely impacts my functioning, I think more so my mood than anything else. I feel my best when I get to bed fairly early and wake up with the sun or slightly before. I'm definitely a morning person and would much rather wake up early and get my day going so I don't feel rushed. Even on weekends I'm usually up by 6. Hopefully you've inspired some folks to pay attention to their own sleep habits a little more! Thanks for sharing.
I prefer getting up early too and get a bit cranky (like today) when I wake up too late :)
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My body has adjusted to around 6-7 hours of sleep per day. How I want to sleep longer as I do not feels recharged every time I wake up. Unfortunately even of weekends I still wake up the same in the wee hours of the morning. Like my body is telling me that I need to wake up already.
That just means that your body is healthy and your internal clock is working ;)
I find that I have different qualities of sleep as well. When I'm away for work, I generally get a bit more sleep (if we are not touring) but I sleep badly. When I'm at home, I sleep less, but somehow I feel much more refreshed... probably a function of how comfortable I feel at home rather than away from home!
There is no place like home ;) Most people have troubles with sleeping in a bed that is not their own.
Oddly enough, I have no problems on planes and trains and buses....
I wish I could sleep too long. Alas.. kids and night shifts disrupt my sleep way too much..
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I hope you find some time for naps at least. Take care of your health.
Nice article :) You mentioned melatonin levels and bright light, in fact, electronics (TV, PC screens, Phones etc..) emit especially blue light which affects the pineal gland severely. There is a free app called f.lux, it allows you to decrease the quantity of blue light emitted by your screen, it helped a lot of persons to regulate their sleep cycle :)
https://justgetflux.com/
Thanks for that info, I hope it helps people. I have no problem with that since I have zero technology in my bedroom ;)
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