The sleeping city; Are Kenyans sleeping too much?

Are you addicted to sleep or depressed?

Sleep plays an important role in both your physical and mental health. Chronic insufficient sleep is associated with an increased risk of mortality.

The amount of sleep you need depends on various elements, including age.

Kids are recommended to get an average of 12 to 16 hrs of sleep while adults

7 to 10 hrs.

However, if all you want is to lay in bed all day long all the time perhaps you might be slowly getting addicted.

Even though sleep addiction has not been recognized as a medical condition, sometimes too much of something can be poisonous.

An addiction is often described by WebMD as a compulsive craving for a substance or behavior that may lead to the obsessive pursuit of a reward or payoff.

Currently, no research links sleep to an addiction. However, excessive sleeping has been linked to other conditions such as diabetes, obesity, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease and depression.

A 2008 Study found that there is a strong association between sleep disturbance and major depression.

The study found that about 40 percent of young depressed adults and 10 percent of older depressed adults experienced hypersomnia. These numbers were higher in women.

Hypersomnia, (EDS) also referred to as excessive daytime sleepiness whose common symptom is constant tiredness and insomnia, sleep disorder that can make it hard to fall or stay asleep was common on the patients.

Depressed patients reported significantly poorer perceptions of sleep quality and poorer perceptions of life quality and mood.

The symptoms cause huge distress, have a major impact on quality of life, and are a strong risk factor for suicide.

A 2017 study found that while insomnia was the most common sleep problem in people with depression, nearly half of the study’s participants reported hypersomnia as a symptom of their depression.

“Individuals [thinking or] talking about escaping from reality might be driven by deep dissatisfaction with their waking life, with a desire to shut out all negativity in a coma-like state,” Bodiu says in the research.

We are also living in tough economic times where financial strain is giving people sleepless nights, however, since people have different coping mechanisms, some people might prefer to 'sleep it off"

There have been several strategies proposed to prolong the therapeutic effect such as adding drug interventions and strictly controlling the amount and type of sleep to help people with sleep disruption.

But all in all, talking with your doctor to get support and find a solution that’s right for you is the best solution.