Self-reported sleep complaints with long and short sleep: a nationally representative sample

Abstract

Objective: Although the problems associated with insufficient sleep have been thoroughly researched, there has been far less substantiation of problems associated with long sleep. Recent evidence shows that habitual sleep duration greater than 7 hours is associated with increased rates of mortality. This study compared the rates of sleep problems in both long and short sleepers.

Methods: Self-reported sleep complaints (eg, sleep onset latency, awakenings during the night, early morning awakenings, nonrestorative sleep, and daytime sleepiness) of nearly 1000 adults who participated in the National Sleep Foundation's 2001 Sleep in America Poll, were compared with reported hours of weekday sleep.

Results: There are U-shaped relationships of sleep complaints with reported weekday total sleep time. More specifically, 8-hour sleepers reported less frequent symptoms than long sleepers or 7-hour sleepers.

Conclusions: Thus, long sleepers, as well as short sleepers, report sleep problems, focusing attention to the often-overlooked problems of the long sleeper.

Fig. 1

From the Sleep in America Poll for 2001, percent of respondents with difficulty falling asleep, wakening during the night, wakening too early, wakening unrefreshed, and daytime sleepiness at least a few nights per week or more, plotted versus reported hours of weekday total sleep time (TST).