Is it normal to sleep 12 hours and still be tired? (2023)

Is it normal to sleep 12 hours and still be tired?

In extreme cases, a person with hypersomnia might sleep soundly at night for 12 hours or more, but still feel the need to nap during the day. Sleeping and napping may not help, and the mind may remain foggy with drowsiness.

As adults, their nightly length of sleep tends to be 10 to 12 hours. This sleep is very normal and of a good quality. It is simply much longer than most people because of their natural biological clock.

Excessive sleepiness is a common symptom of undiagnosed sleep apnea, narcolepsy, hypersomnia⁵, restless legs syndrome, and circadian rhythm disorders like shift work disorder. If your doctor suspects a sleep disorder is a reason you feel tired all the time, they may refer you to a sleep center.

Summary: While the effects of sleep deprivation are well known, researchers discover sleeping too much could have a detrimental effect on your brain. A new study reports sleeping more than eight hours per night can reduce cognitive ability and reasoning skills.

The most common causes of excessive sleepiness are sleep deprivation and disorders like sleep apnea and insomnia. Depression and other psychiatric problems, certain medications, and medical conditions affecting the brain and body can cause daytime drowsiness as well.

The “right” amount of sleep proves somewhat individual as some people will feel great on seven hours and others may need a little longer. However, in most studies and for most experts, over nine hours is considered an excessive or long amount of sleep for adults.

Hypnotist Peter Powers holds the record for the longest time asleep. He put himself to sleep for straight eight days (188 hours) under hypnosis.

The flexibility of our spine decreases as we age, which may make the side sleeping position more comfortable for older adults. Sleeping on your side offers several benefits. It promotes healthy spinal alignment and is the sleep position least likely to result in back pain, especially when supported with pillows.

Getting 9 Hours of Sleep Per Night May Indicate Risk of Dementia. Researchers say getting more than 9 hours of sleep a night could indicate a higher risk of dementia. Researchers studied more than 5,000 Latino adults and concluded that too much sleep was linked to a decrease in memory and episodic learning.

Why do I wake up tired with no energy?

Waking up feeling slightly groggy or tired is just part of the human experience. It's called sleep inertia: "The transitional state between sleep and wake, marked by impaired performance … and a desire to return to sleep." The main thing to know about sleep inertia is it is completely normal.

Call for an appointment with your doctor if your fatigue has persisted for two or more weeks despite making an effort to rest, reduce stress, choose a healthy diet and drink plenty of fluids.

Depression, stress and anxiety can directly cause fatigue, as well as lead to poor sleep quality, thus also causing fatigue. Our fatigue often has an emotional component.

Using naps to “top up” on sleep can be an effective means of increasing total sleep in a 24-hour period and has proven benefits for performance, efficiency, mood, and alertness, and can reduce fatigue and accidents.

A study published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience found that staying awake too long destroys brain cells in mice, and may do the same in humans. It's the first study to show (if only in animals) that sleep loss can lead to irreversible brain cell damage.

Idiopathic Hypersomnia

With this disorder, you may sleep as much as 14 to 18 hours a day. For treatment, doctors often prescribe medications similar to what is prescribed for narcolepsy. These medications may not treat idiopathic hypersomnia as effectively as they treat narcolepsy, however.

While THC typically acts as a sedative, it can have a stimulating effect for some people, especially for those who are new to using marijuana or taking higher doses. In these cases, using marijuana before bed may result in a longer time falling asleep.