# Do bigger people need more sleep?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-bigger-people-need-more-sleep/489719>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 17, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-bigger-people-need-more-sleep/489719 "2009-03-17T04:26:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Quillyshadow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/dec6dc/32.png) [@Quillyshadow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quillyshadow)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-bigger-people-need-more-sleep/489719/1 "2009-03-17T04:26:38Z")

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I was wondering if there has been any research done on whether the larger you are, the more sleep you need?  
In this case I am talking about taller/bigger framed people, because I assume that very overweight people, that are not necessarily tall or big boned, would need more sleep simply because they are unhealthy and their body takes more time to recover from the exertions of the day.  
So, does having more miles of veins, a larger skeleton and all that mean you take more sleep to run?

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**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-bigger-people-need-more-sleep/489719/2 "2009-03-17T05:21:31Z")

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[http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/jsr/2007/00000016/00000001/art00009](http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/jsr/2007/00000016/00000001/art00009)

High BMI = Lesser sleep duration

I don’t see anything for height and sleep duration, but I didn’t google too hard.

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**Author:** ![Quillyshadow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/dec6dc/32.png) [@Quillyshadow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quillyshadow)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-bigger-people-need-more-sleep/489719/3 "2009-03-17T05:33:00Z")

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So the higher your BMI goes the less sleep you get?  
Interesting. But is that the same as getting the sleep you NEED?

Anyway, thanks for finding me an answer to my assumption on weight.

Yes, I am still googling the height/sleep as well, at the moment it seems, anecdotally at least, that there is no connection.

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**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-bigger-people-need-more-sleep/489719/4 "2009-03-17T14:45:29Z")

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Very tiny people (babies) seem to need _way_ more sleep than the average full-sized person.

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**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-bigger-people-need-more-sleep/489719/5 "2009-03-17T15:53:16Z")

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Children and teenagers also seem to need more sleep. (Not that they necessarily get it.)

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**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-bigger-people-need-more-sleep/489719/6 "2009-03-17T16:32:28Z")

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Very overweight people would be more likely to have sleep disturbances like apnea and not get as good sleep, so they may end up staying in bed longer. As you’re saying, it seems like that would make it difficult to separate out what they really need.