Here's why you feel more tired after slumbering for longer than usual

A journalist's brain is overflowing with seemingly useless bits of information. Mostly due to our ‘curiosity killed the cat’ kind of personality. Allow us to demonstrate—did you know that koalas sleep for 16 to 18 hours a day? According to Australia's Adelaide Zoo, Koalas eat for 3 hours a day and spend the rest of their time snoozing. Amazing, right? However, the more you think about it, the less shocking it gets. Especially considering we’ve all had lazy Sundays where we become these fuzzy tree-hugging creatures. The only difference is that Koalas wake up from their slumber fresh and motivated to chomp on eucalyptus leaves again while we, mere humans, wake up from a day like this feeling like we’ve been through the eye of a tornado. 

You know the feeling, don’t you? The grogginess coupled with bouts of irritation and a desperate urge for caffeine. But have you ever wondered why sleeping in feels like someone has hit us in the face with a chair? Especially when the logic behind sleeping in is so simple. Thanks to our erratic schedules, most of us are sleep deprived. So we sleep a little extra whenever we can to catch up. Unfortunately, we can’t stock up on rest like cactuses stock water. 

Keeping sleep cycles on track 

We spoke to Dr Prashant Chhajed, director of the pulmonology and sleep centre at Fortis Hiranandani Hospital, who explained to us that a person ideally needs 4-5 cycles of good sleep every night to wake up charged enough to take on another day. From these cycles, the first two are the easiest to wake up from while the last two-to-three are iron-clad. After these comes REM sleep—the stage that has us playing with pink bunnies in our dreams. He says, “The approximate duration of each sleep cycle is around 70 to 90 minutes, which is why a person needs to sleep for 7 hours for good sleep.” 

Let’s do some math together. On average, we go through five sleep cycles of 90-minutes each. That is roughly 450 minutes of needed slumber. This comes up to a total of 7.5 hours a night. But when we sleep for longer than usual, chances are that we will wake up during REM sleep which is what leaves behind, what scientists call, a sleep hangover. Of course, this calculation isn’t exact because sleep is highly individual. But Dr Chhajed emphasizes that the quality of sleep is more important than the length. 

In tandem with a ruined sleep cycle, another factor that plays a huge role is our internal clocks. All of our systems are bound by a circadian pacemaker, a cluster of cells found in the hypothalamus of the brain. The same part that controls hunger, and thirst. These pacemaker neurons are triggered by light signals coming from the eye. That’s how they figure out when it’s morning and send chemical signals to the rest of the body to ensure that every cell is on the same timeline. 

Rhythms are out of sync 

There is research that shows our pacemaker neurons are a product of evolution. So, when we suddenly wake up at 12 pm instead of our usual 8 am it leaves our pacemaker neurons more perplexed than a child trying to tell time. So now, like they’re used to doing, the pacemaker neurons have signalled the rest of the cells to start using their energy hours before we’ve even woken up. This throws our inner clock for a loop and leads to us impersonating sloths.  

Dr Richa Mittal, consultant of pulmonary medicine at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital explains this phenomenon further. She told us, “Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles that are part of the body’s internal clock. Our sleep-wake cycle runs on this rhythm as it aligns our system with the outside world’s day and night to create a stable cycle of restorative rest that enables increased daytime activity. When the rhythm and pattern of your day-to-day sleep gets disturbed or you sleep too much, this pattern shifts and daytime fatigue sets in. This leads to your circadian clock telling you one thing and the external clock telling you something else entirely.” 

The next time your mind is telling you to be active but your body keeps hitting the snooze button, try synchronizing your internal clock with the external one. Dr Mittal suggests sitting in the sunlight for 20-30 minutes to "reset" your internal clock which is momentarily working like a headless chicken. The tricky part though is to keep track of whether you are oversleeping regularly. Sitting in the sunlight is not a solution. It’s a bandaid on a bullet wound. 

In a massive study, Harvard Medical School found that people who slept for 9-11 hours a night were more prone to developing memory problems and heart conditions. Don’t start hyperventilating yet, you just need to regulate your patterns and maintain proper sleep hygiene. Dr Mittal says, “Sleep hygiene is where you have a strict bedtime schedule, even on the weekends. You avoid naps in the evenings and restrict the use of electronic devices at least an hour before bedtime.” 

This means fewer nights of clicking on the ‘next episode’ button until the wee hours of the morning. And absolutely no doomscrolling right before bed. Seems improbable, doesn’t it? Like walking into a grocery store and not leaving with junk you absolutely don’t need. But well, it’s about weighing the risks here. Oversleeping v/s our indulgent (bordering on unhealthy) lifestyle. 

The other side 

Now that we’ve explored the dangers of sleeping in, let’s turn the tables slightly. Why do we wake up feeling like an exhausted Grinch even after getting all the necessary sleep? According to Dr Chhajed, it could be a sign of a sleeping disorder such as sleep apnea. He says, “Sleep apnea is a severe sleep disorder caused by an obstructed airway which can prove fatal, especially if left untreated. So make sure you get yourself checked if you show persistent symptoms related to the condition.” 

You might feel like those long nights are your only time to catch up with friends or to check in with yourself. But the oversleeping that comes as part of this package is not doing you any favours. The way to minimize that grogginess is by sticking to a sleep pattern and doing something relaxing before bedtime (no, an episode of FRIENDS is not it). 

Koalas might have cracked the code to sleep as much as they want, but we aren’t quite there yet. 

Lead image: Pexels