In this column there is a discussion about whether or not oversleeping leaves one groggy or not. Although the answer to the question is ‘we’re not sure’, I think this leads to a different question. Why is there even such a thing as ‘oversleeping’ anyway? Sleeping is an unconscious activity; we might be able to wake ourselves up with an alarm clock, but we can’t choose to sleep longer. Our body just decides to wake us up when it’s ready. So why do we ever oversleep? If our body has had enough, why would it just keep sleeping?
because we’re lazy. uh…:o
I tend to find that if I lie down for a rest - irrespective of the time of day - I can quite quickly start to nod off even if I’ve had a good nights sleep the [revious evening. Generally I will then doze for about 20 - 30 minutes then wake up feeling much more refreshed and alert.
Strangely enough, when I was a little younger (14 or 15), if I had this type of cat-nap, I would invariably wake up with a very bad headache which would take 2 or 3 hours to wear off. This no longer happens. Weird huh?
I’ve heard some discussion of why you feel ‘groggy’ after too much sleep. Most of the information I’ve read (sorry no cites avaiable) seems to point toward sleep cycles as the cause of the problem. For ease of example, lets say that one full REM sleep cycle lasts 4 hours. If you sleep 8, and get up, you feel fine. if you sleep 10, you’re waking in the middle of a sleep cycle, and thus feel hazy. I’ll try and dig out the old college Psych books if anyone needs a cite.
As far as when you’re a teenager, I’ve heard that you technically do need more sleep. How that effects sleep cycles, I don’t know…
That is exactly what happens to me. My sleep cycles are four hours long. If I wake up in the middle of the night to go piddle or get a drink, 99% of the time I notice it’s at 2:00 a.m., give or take 5-10 minutes. And I’m not really feeling dead-tired as I might expect with only half a night’s sleep. I always seem to feel OK, like I could get dressed and go to work if I wanted to. I go to bed at 10 p.m. (give or take 5-10 minutes) so this makes it four hours almost exactly. Then I go back to bed and wake up again in another four hours, without the need for an alarm clock.
If, on the other hand, I go to bed late (10:30 or 11 p.m.) & need to wake up at 6 a.m., I better set that alarm because I know I’ll wake up 30-60 minutes late if I don’t. And when that alarm does go off 30 minutes before the end of my 2nd four-hour sleep cycle, I am on one hell grumpy bastard.
Not much help as to the why’s and wherefore’s but there it is.