The sleep paradox: why sleeping more does not necessarily mean living better

There is a deeply rooted idea in our collective imagination of well-being: if sleeping too little is a problem, then sleeping a lot must necessarily be the solution.

The reasoning seems impeccable. If a five-hour night leaves us tired, irritable, and less focused, a nine or ten-hour night should, at least in theory, make us feel even better.

Yet the relationship between sleep and health is more complex.

Sleep science presents us with an interesting paradox, especially for those focused on wellness and longevity: the number of hours spent in bed does not automatically coincide with the quality of recovery. Sleeping too little is certainly associated with various negative health effects, but habitually long sleep durations have also been associated, in numerous observational studies, with unfavorable outcomes.

This does not mean that eight, nine, or ten hours of sleep are “dangerous.” And, above all, it does not mean that sleeping longer directly causes a reduction in life expectancy.

It means something more interesting: when we talk about sleep, counting hours is not enough. And it is precisely here that the contemporary concept of well-being begins to shift.

The true luxury of the Spa might be sleeping better, not sleeping more

For a long time, wellness has portrayed rest primarily as the absence of activity.
Stopping. Unplugging. Sleeping longer.

But the body does not function like an electronic device that recovers energy simply by staying plugged into the socket for more hours. Sleep is a dynamic biological process, regulated by circadian, neurological, and metabolic mechanisms.

It is not just how much we sleep that matters. It also matters when we sleep, how continuous the sleep is, how restorative it is, and how we function during the day.

A recent scientific statement from the American Heart Association highlighted this very point: sleep health encompasses duration, but also the regularity of schedules, the continuity of rest, daytime functioning, and the subjective perception of sleep quality. For most adults, the general reference remains between seven and nine hours per night.

The consequence is almost counterintuitive: a person can spend many hours in bed without necessarily achieving effective sleep. They may sleep for a long time because their sleep is fragmented. Because recovery is insufficient. Because the organism is responding to a health condition that deserves attention.

And this is why, in a truly evolved wellness journey, the question should not simply be: “How many hours did I sleep?”

Perhaps we should ask ourselves: “How do I feel after sleeping?”

The curious U-shaped graph: when extremes don’t tell the whole story

In several large observational studies and meta-analyses, the relationship between habitual sleep duration and certain health outcomes has been described as a U-shaped curve.

In simple terms, less favorable values tend to appear at the extremities: very short durations on one side and very long durations on the other.

A dose-response meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, based on prospective studies, observed associations between extreme sleep durations and a higher risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events, with the lowest risk point around seven hours per day.

Another broad meta-analysis published in Scientific Reports similarly found a non-linear relationship between nocturnal sleep duration and mortality, using seven hours as a reference.

But here we must pause.

Because it is precisely at this point that science communication can easily turn into a flawed simplification.

An association does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

People who habitually sleep much longer may differ—in terms of health conditions, lifestyle, or factors not fully measurable—from those who sleep an intermediate number of hours.

Some researchers have also highlighted significant methodological limitations in sleep duration studies: much of the literature is based on the number of hours reported directly by participants and can be influenced by measurement errors, confounding factors, and reverse causality. In other words, in some cases, it could be a health condition influencing sleep duration, and not the other way around.

And it is precisely this uncertainty, rather than the promise of a magic formula, that makes the issue scientifically interesting.

Longevity: sleep is not a race to see who sleeps the most

In recent years, the culture of longevity has produced an increasing focus on everything that can be measured.

• Steps.
• Heart rate.
• Heart rate variability.
• Minutes of physical activity.
• Hours of sleep.

The risk is turning even rest into a competition.

• Seven hours and fifty minutes: good.
• Eight hours and thirty: even better.
• Nine hours and forty: excellent result.

But the body does not think in terms of a leaderboard.

Sleep needs are not identical for everyone and can change throughout life and in relation to individual conditions. Furthermore, sleep health cannot be reduced to a single data point extracted from a smartwatch.

A number can be useful. It is not necessarily a diagnosis.

The true goal of rest is not to accumulate as much time as possible under the covers, but to foster adequate recovery compatible with good functioning during the day.

This concept has an important consequence for the Spa world as well.

The most interesting wellness should not promise to automatically “recover” all the hours of sleep lost during the year in one weekend. There is no treatment capable of undoing, in two days, the effects of months of unfavorable habits.

A Spa can, however, do something more realistic: it can create the environmental and behavioral conditions that help a person temporarily break the rhythm of hyper-activation.

The Spa as a laboratory of rest

Silence, reduction of stimuli, thermal comfort, less frantic routines, moderate physical activity, and time taken away from daily commitments: the Spa experience can represent a particularly favorable context for reconsidering one’s relationship with recovery.

Not in the simplistic sense of a “sleep cure,” but as a space in which it finally becomes possible to listen to signals that, in daily life, we tend to ignore.

Tiredness does not always simply mean we need to sleep more.

Regular physical activity, for example, is recognized by the World Health Organization as an important element for health and can also contribute to sleep, while high levels of sedentary behavior are associated with various unfavorable outcomes.

Well-being, therefore, rarely depends on a single switch.

It is a system.

And perhaps this is what the Spa world can teach better than the culture of obsessive biohacking: recovery is not necessarily something to be optimized down to the last minute.

Sometimes you simply need to create the conditions for it to happen.

The signal not to ignore: sleeping a lot and still feeling tired

There is, however, one point worth being very clear about.

Occasionally sleeping more than usual is not necessarily a problem. After periods of particular fatigue, changes in routine, or sleep deprivation, the need for rest can naturally vary.

It is a different case when a person habitually sleeps many hours and continues to experience marked drowsiness or a persistent feeling of lack of recovery.

In this situation, it would not be correct to simply conclude: “I just need to sleep more.”

Sleep duration is only one part of the picture.

Quality, continuity, and daytime functioning can be just as important. When sleep does not appear persistently restorative, it is reasonable to discuss it with a healthcare professional, especially if the problem interferes with daily life.

Because the sleep paradox, in the end, is not that sleeping a lot is wrong.

The paradox is thinking that rest can be measured only in hours.

The new idea of luxury? Waking up truly rested

Perhaps the most sophisticated form of wellness is not being able to sleep late. It is waking up and feeling that the body has recovered.

Not needing a perfect number.
Not chasing yet another parameter.
Not turning sleep into a performance.

Science is showing us that the relationship between rest and health is more nuanced than the “more is better” culture has led us to believe.

And this could also change the way we experience a Spa. No longer as the place to do everything we don’t have time to do during the year, but as a space in which to stop, at least for a moment, asking the body to always do more.

Even when it comes to sleeping.

Because, in well-being as in longevity, the secret is almost never adding infinitely. Sometimes it is finding the right measure.