Dr Alex Bartle: Sleep Well Clinic expert on whether too much sleep is bad for you

There's no shortage of research on the dangers of not sleeping enough, but sleeping too much has been found to be worse for your health than expected.

New research has revealed that people who sleep over nine hours per night are 34 percent more likely to live shorter lives than those who sleep the ideal 8-9 hours a night.

Dr Alex Bartle from the Sleep Well Clinic says if you frequently sleep longer than the ideal timeframe, you'll need to consult your GP.

"If that's not sufficient - particularly if you're a snorer for example - then you need to check for sleep apnoea."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Together due for see Allen. Ah. Yeah, look, I'm getting
a lot of texts about the AID. I think we
can all agree. Having the un do the AID in
Gaza's probably a little problematic given that last time they
were doing it they were infiltrated by Hummas. You'll just
google Unra and Hummas and you'll find that story. Nineteen
past five. Now, this is alarming. After being told for
how long that we need to get enough sleep, it's

(00:21):
emerged at getting too much sleep will actually kill you early.
Dr Alex Bartel is a sleep expert from the Sleep
Well Clinic and with us.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Now, Hey Alex, oh, good evening.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Do you believe this? Does this sound right to you?
That people who sleep more than nine hours a night
are thirty four percent more likely to have shorter lives?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yes, and the reasons for that, and this is a
repeat of a study that's been done a number of
times now that too short sleep well, we all know
about that, that's been around for ages. But too long
sleep sounds a bit wrong. But nearly always we're sleeping
too much time more than nine or was certainly more
than ten hours because of some underlying condition. So in
itself that sleep long long sleep isn't causing the illness.

(01:01):
It's often some illness is causing the long sleep, and
it may be that illness that's resulting in the higher
death rate.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Ah okay, so maybe that there's something already wrong requiring
more sleep. How do you then know? I mean, if
you are there people alex who simply need to sleep
eight and a half to nine hours a night.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Oh yes, genetically it can be possible. About two percent
of the population are really quite long sleepers, sort of
more than nine hours. But you know, when you get
more than ten hours, there's something wrong, and so usually
the GP will have done something about that, like tested
for thyroid problems or diabetes. Depression will often cause people
to sleep longer. But of course sleep aup near is

(01:40):
the other one where people get very sleepy and may
need more sleep than usual, but often still feel tired
during the day.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
How do you know, I mean, if you feel like
you need eight and a half to nine and you
get it, and then you'll wake up and you're good
to go and you have a great day and then
you do it again, is that that's okay? Is it?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
That's brilliant? I mean, yeah, seven eight hours sleep and
people function really well on that generally. But if you're
suddenly finding you're needing much longer sleep, then you really
need to catch up with your GP and go through
some testing. And if that's not sufficient and you're particularly
if you're a snorer, for example, then you need to
check for sleep ap near good stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
It's good to talk to you, Alex Alex Bartel, sleep
expert from the Sleep Well Clinic. For more from Hither
Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be
from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio