Too Much Sleep Can Also Lead To Sleep Problems

Sleep complaints were more common in both people who slept too much and too little, in contrast to those who slept for seven to eight hours at night.

According to a study by Michael A. Grandner, B.A., and Daniel F. Kripke, M.D., of the University of California, San Diego, too many hours in bed can cause as many sleep problems as too few.

Researchers found that people who slept too much, ie long sleepers, reported more problems with falling asleep, waking up during the night, awaking too early, feeling "unrefreshed" upon waking up, and feeling sleepy during the day than those who slept seven or eight hours.

Scientists know a lot more about problems associated with lack of sleep than they know about too much sleep, although some studies have shown a correlation between too much sleep and an increased risk of death in certain groups of people, according to Grandner and Kripke.

Grandner says that "Although it is unclear why long and short sleepers should have similar types of sleep complaints, these data challenge the assumption that more than seven or eight hours of sleep is associated with increased health and well-being,"

A Sound machine may be just as helpful as taking prescription drugs.

According to a sleep survey of 1,466 adults and a parallel survey of 1,093 Americans suffering from chronic sleep loss, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, a Sound machine may be just as helpful as taking prescription drugs.

They surveyed people who had used some kind of insomnia treatment on at least 8 nights in the previous month.
They were asked about what they'd tried and how often it helped.

From the 12% who had used prescription drugs, 75% said that they helped most nights.
However nearly the same percentage, 70% of the people who used a sound machine reported getting relief.

Bearing in mind that $3 billion was spent on prescription sleep aids in 2007, it would seem that a sound machine would be a safer, less expensive solution to sleep better.