3 ms·

interesting, maybe humans have a fixed bandwidth on "awake hours", and night owls just burn through the stock quicker...

• gnode 9y ago
  Studies have shown sleeping for longer also correlates with increased mortality. Although I've not seen a study which establishes the causality of this. It's plausible that people who are sleeping longer are doing it because (potentially undiagnosed) diseases are making them lethargic, rather than oversleeping causing disease. I think a study would have to take a set of people and force sleeping habits upon them for a significant length of time for the results to be meaningful with regards to causality.
  • tomxor 9y ago
    > It's plausible that people who are sleeping longer are doing it because (potentially undiagnosed) diseases are making them lethargic That was the main theory behind that correlation, it makes sense since healthy people will naturally find it quite difficult to sleep longer than 8 hours (of actual uninterrupted sleep). Some people will also sleep longer because of issues affecting their quality of sleep (health or otherwise)
    • nomy99 9y ago
      There need not be a physical cause for excess sleep. Emotional disturbances or drug use can also lead to mini escapades to the bedroom. This can cause your body to adapt to a longer sleeping pattern; bypassing the pain of sleep fatigue healthy people have.
      • deleted 9y ago
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      • truculation 9y ago
        That certainly seems to be the story with me -- not drugs, per se, but general greediness and over-stimulation puts me on a ~24.5 hour cycle. When the mind is making a lot of noise it's harder to get to sleep and it takes more sleep to recover. That said, I suspect there's no fundamental reason why a night owl can't become a morning lark if he sincerely wants to.
        • deleted 9y ago
          [deleted]
• cluoma 9y ago
  The article mentions that in the study there was little difference in the self-reported sleep times of night-owls and morning folk. So probably not.