How to Stop Oversleeping: Causes, Fixes, and Tools That Work

To stop oversleeping, set a firm wake time and keep it every day, get bright light as soon as you wake up, and use an alarm you can't turn off half asleep. For many people, oversleeping is a habit problem, not a medical one. If you sleep long hours and still wake up tired, see a doctor.

Sleeping long and still waking up tired can be a sign of poor sleep quality, not just too little sleep. You may be spending enough hours in bed without getting enough deep, restful sleep.

According to the Sleep Foundation, depression, sleep apnea, and low iron can all leave you sleeping longer or feeling sleepy during the day, and an underactive thyroid can cause hypersomnia, a daily need to sleep that is hard to resist. Screens play a part too. In a 2015 study in the journal PNAS, people who read on a light-emitting e-reader before bed took longer to fall asleep and were less alert the next morning than when they read a printed book.

The Sleep Foundation defines oversleeping as more than 9 hours in 24 hours. Long sleep can be normal for a while, for example when you are ill or catching up after short nights, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. But if you regularly sleep more than 9 hours and still feel tired, see a doctor. Obstructive sleep apnea, for example, can wake you five to 30 times or more an hour, according to the Mayo Clinic, usually too briefly to remember, and keeps you from reaching deep, restful sleep.

For many people, however, oversleeping is behavioral: a combination of late bedtimes, no wake-up accountability, and alarm designs that allow unconscious dismissal.

Set a firm wake time and use Kairo’s alarm to enforce it: you turn it off by completing a short mission, like a quick photo. Get bright light immediately upon waking to signal your circadian clock that the day has started: light has the biggest influence on your body clock, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Nap in the early afternoon, if at all: the Mayo Clinic notes that napping after 3 p.m. can interfere with nighttime sleep. If you must nap, keep it to about 20 minutes, since the longer you nap, the more likely you are to wake up groggy.

Camera-validated alarms prevent unconscious or semi-conscious dismissal. Streak tracking creates accountability that compounds over time. In Kairo, that accountability comes from your friends: waking up is the first habit you prove to them each morning.

Keep the same wake time every day, weekends included, as the CDC recommends. A steady schedule leaves far less room for oversleeping to creep back in.