Source CNN

Oversleeping can hurt your health

According to WebMD, the amount of sleep a person needs “depends on your age and activity level as well as your general health and lifestyle habits.”

Even though the average recommended amount of sleep is seven to nine hours, certain times in your life call for more.

According to Russell Sanna, executive director of the Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine, people need more sleep than usual when they’re recovering from illness, major surgery or a radical time-zone change.

However, just because you can sleep for 12 hours on a daily basis doesn’t mean you should. According to Dr. Lisa Shives, director of Northshore Sleep Medicine in Evanston, Illinois, grogginess from oversleeping is known as “sleep drunkenness.” Occasional oversleeping doesn’t pose serious health risks, but if you’re consistently sleeping too much and waking up groggy, you may want to consult a physician.

Oversleeping has been associated with thyroid disease, kidney and liver disease, depression and dementia. But don’t think you can catch a few winks and assume your health isn’t at risk because you were up before noon. People who get too much and too little sleep have a higher mortality rate. So don’t stay up late and set an alarm, OK?