A recent column in the German newspaper FAZ challenges conventional wisdom regarding sleep, suggesting that excessive sleep may not be as detrimental to health as commonly believed. The article, published February 10, 2026, questions the link between long sleep duration and negative health outcomes like heart disease and diabetes.
The piece focuses on the categorization of “long sleepers” – individuals who regularly sleep more than nine hours per night – and examines whether this habit inherently carries health risks. While sleep deprivation is widely acknowledged as harmful, the FAZ column posits that the dangers of oversleeping may be overstated.
Photographer Janek Stempel, based in Frankfurt, Hannover, and Prague, documented the topic with imagery accompanying the article. Stempel, born in Prague in 2003, began focusing on photography in 2020, and is currently a student of Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography since the winter semester of 2023. His work often centers on reportage and portraiture, with his first published portraits appearing on the cover of the HAZ, featuring first-time voters.
Stempel’s website, janekstempel.com, and Instagram account (@janekstempelfoto) showcase a portfolio that includes projects such as “The Architecture of Data Trading,” “Collecting Instead of Hunting: A New History of Humanity,” and “Library of Rescued Books.” He can be contacted at +420727860112 or +4915129069589, and via email at janek@stempel.cz.
The FAZ article does not detail specific studies or data supporting its claims, but rather frames the discussion as a challenge to prevailing medical narratives. It raises the question of when sleep duration transitions from restorative to potentially harmful, a point that remains open for further investigation.
