“If you’re just waking up late just to catch up on your sleep, that’s called recovery sleep,” Dr. Khan says. “But when you’re doing that habitually and sleeping more than eight or nine hours every day, that would be oversleeping.”

Read on to learn more about what causes oversleeping, the signs to look out for, and it may impact your overall health.

What Causes Oversleeping?

Oversleeping typically indicates something else is going on, such as an underlying sleep disorder or another medical condition. “Oversleeping is more of a symptom than a diagnosis,” Khan says.

“The most common causes we look at when someone says they’re sleeping more than nine hours a night is if it’s a medication’s effect or a medical, psychiatric, or neurological disorder,” says Ulysses Magalang, MD, the director of the sleep disorders program at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. “If those aren’t the reason, it could be a sleep disorder.”

• Obesity
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Restless leg syndrome
• Bruxism (teeth grinding or clenching)
• Chronic pain
• Sleep disorder (such as sleep apnea, insomnia, or narcolepsy)
• Hypothyroidism
• Depression or anxiety

Khan says oversleeping can also be attributed to hypersomnia (or excessive daytime sleepiness), delayed sleep phase syndrome, an abnormal balance of hormones, Parkinson’s, or dementia.

Signs You’re Sleeping too Much

While regularly sleeping more than nine hours per night is one red flag, it’s not the only signal to look out for. And sleeping more than nine hours a night isn’t always cause for concern.

Some people naturally need more sleep than others. “About 2 percent of the population are ‘long sleepers’ who require between 10 to 12 hours of sleep nightly on a regular basis,” says Shanon Makekau, MD, the chief of pulmonology and the sleep medicine director at Kaiser Permanente in Honolulu.

For these people, oversleeping is normal. “Trying to impose a typical seven- to nine-hour sleep schedule on such people can be detrimental and effectively results in a sleep debt,” Dr. Makekau says. If you regularly sleep longer than nine hours per night, but wake up feeling refreshed and rested, you’re likely a long sleeper. If you don’t, there could be a problem.

• Tiredness during the day
• Grogginess
• Headache
• Decreased energy
• Mood changes
• Waking up but you can’t get up
• Never feeling refreshed
• Sleeping through an alarm

Why Oversleeping Is Risky

“While consistently getting less than the recommended amount of sleep has been associated with multiple adverse health outcomes, sleeping more than nine hours per night regularly may also be detrimental,” Makekau says.

She says oversleeping can lead to:

• Increased fatigue and low energy
• Decrease in immune function
• Changes in stress response
• Increased risk of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity
• Increased risk of death

What to Do if You Suspect You’ve Been Oversleeping

• Avoid the snooze button.
• Wake up at the same time every day — weekends included.
• Embrace natural light when you wake up and avoid it close to bedtime.

If you still find yourself oversleeping regularly after making these changes, schedule a visit with your primary care physician. Dr. Magalang says doctors will typically employ a process of elimination to rule out conditions to determine the underlying issue.

Your doctor will likely give you a physical exam, review medications that may affect sleep, and discuss further testing, including blood work, Makekau says. They will also want to know details about your sleep habits. Khan suggests you keep a sleep diary for at least two weeks before the appointment and note how much you’re sleeping and the quality of that sleep.