Submitted by MistWeaver80 t3_11hca3o in science
But is this causation or correlation? I'm way suspecting the latter.
Seriously, these stats often pop up but I feel like there’s a lot of conflation between “sleeping too much is unhealthy” and “unhealthy people sleep too much.”
Yeah but it's still good to know because if you're ill more than others and your sleep isn't average then you can either:
> Sleeping too much is unhealthy
Reduce sleep. Or
> Unhealthy people sleep too much
Investigate the underlying issue and then fix it, reducing sleep.
Which lays out a straightforward solution, if you investigate first then you'll cover both, so do that.
It's pretty actionable even if it's correlation.
I think the point is if you're consistently sleeping too much or too little it's likely (or always) caused by other factors that need to be dealt with. Work, health, etc.
Studies like this often suggest that simply forcing oneself to sleep more or less will just make things better all by itself. Without knowing the cause, this could even make things worse.
Edit: For example, some health conditions (like allergies) constantly exhaust the body and result in needing extended rest to recover. Not allowing yourself that rest, without dealing with the condition itself, will just make it worse.
Which is essentially what I'm saying, but that by trying and failing to correct your sleep, you'll know it's a deeper issue and can look at that.
But now, people with atypical sleep and immune issues that ignore one (or both) might be stirred into some reflection and subsequent action. The knowledge helps even if it's correlation, is all I mean.
Particularly with "too much sleep," it's usually a symptom of another health issue (like sleep apnea, depression, etc.), rather than the cause of health problems. There's very little evidence that excess sleep is detrimental in people who are healthy.
Too little sleep is causation. Too much sleep is correlation. My guess.
Too much sleep is likely also causation, but in the other direction.
Or maybe people who get very little sleep are just also more likely to encounter infections — they might have small children in daycare, or do shift work in healthcare settings, etc etc
I'm in camp causation.. but I think the illness is affecting your sleep patterns and not the sleep patterns mkaing you sick.
Pretty much. I've long term anxiety and depression which messes with your immune system. So yes, I can sleep for 17-20hours a day and I also catch every illness going. I get ill because of the immune wrecking mental health issues, not because I sleep a lot. Given depression and anxietys prevalence in the population, I'd imagine it played a role in these figures.
The causes of sleeping problems also cause issues with your immune system and focusing on fixing your sleeping problem will help even if it's correlation due to a shared cause.
This is reverse causation. Those people that are ill or have sleep issues like sleep apnoea need more sleep. If those people had normal amounts of sleep they would have even worse health outcomes.
Agreed, not sure if it was controlled for preexisting conditions.
Sometimes when you're sick you get terrible rest.
Sometimes when you're sick all you wanna do is rest.
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