Can Sleeping In on the Weekends Protect Your Heart Health? Here's What New Research Says But experts say it's not a perfect recipe for good sleep
If you sleep less than the recommended seven hours each night, catching up on the weekends can help
- A recent study found that people who slept in on the weekends had a lower risk of heart disease compared to those who didn’t.
- Other studies link catch-up sleep to longevity and reduced inflammation, but oversleeping and irregular sleeping pose risks for chronic conditions and high blood pressure.
- If you sleep less than the recommended seven hours a night, catching up on the weekends can help, but experts say that’s not a total solution for sleep deprivation.
Not getting enough sleep is linked to a host of health issues, including an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. But for those who struggle to get enough sleep during the week, new research suggests getting caught up on Saturdays and Sundays could help.
The data, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress on August 29, found that people who slept in on the weekends had a lower risk of heart disease compared to those who didn’t.
“The association becomes even more pronounced among individuals who regularly experience inadequate sleep on weekdays,” Yanjun Song, study co-author and researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease at Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, said in a statement.
The investigators evaluated data from nearly 91,000 U.K. Biobank participants, 22% of whom were considered sleep-deprived (sleeping less than seven hours per night).
Song and his colleague put participants into four groups based on how much catch-up, or compensatory, sleep they got on the weekends. Those in the first group didn’t get any extra sleep on Saturdays and Sundays, while the fourth group got anywhere from over an hour to 16 hours of extra weekend sleep.
Over the course of a nearly 14-year follow-up, the researchers found that participants who got the most catch-up sleep were 19% less likely to develop heart disease than those who got the least. That difference was even more significant among people who were sleep deprived—those who got the most compensatory sleep had a 20% lower risk of developing heart disease.
“For the significant proportion of the population in modern society that suffers from sleep deprivation, those who have the most ‘catch-up’ sleep at weekends have significantly lower rates of heart disease,” Zechen Liu, co-author and researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease at Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, said in a statement.
But despite the study’s results, experts still caution against relying solely on weekend sleep.
Michael Miller, MD, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said he wasn’t sure if the adverse health consequences of chronic sleep deprivation can be fixed with just two days of better sleep.
This new study also has significant limitations, Miller told Health, as it didn’t address how other variables—including participants’ diet, stress levels, or drug and alcohol use—could have impacted the results.
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How Does Getting Caught Up on Your Sleep Affect Your Health?
There have been a number of studies on how catch-up sleep impacts the body. However, the findings are mixed.
A 2018 study found that people who didn’t sleep enough during the week but caught up on weekends ended up living longer than those who were chronically sleep-deprived. Other research found sleep weekend warriors had better health outcomes, and another linked getting extra sleep on the weekends to lower inflammation.
Plus, a report published earlier this year found that people with cardiovascular disease had shorter weekend catch-up sleep compared to those without cardiovascular disease. Specifically for participants who slept less than six hours on weeknights, getting over two hours of extra sleep during the weekend was linked to a lower prevalence of cardiovascular disease.
On the other hand, oversleeping has been linked to chronic conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. And irregular sleeping patterns throughout the week have been linked to a higher risk of high blood pressure.
“‘Catching up on sleep’ is not as simple as it appears,” said Michael Grandner, PhD, associate professor and director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.
Though sleep researchers are still investigating how sleeping in on the weekends affects the body, experts are in agreement that regular sleep deprivation is not good for our health. People who sleep less than seven hours per night are at risk of developing hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, all of which can increase the risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.
“We know that people who do not get healthy sleep are at an increased risk of heart disease,” Grandner told Health. But the exact mechanism behind that connection is just beginning to be studied, he said.
Should You Play Catch Up With Your Sleep?
If you struggle to get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep each night, getting extra sleep on the weekends could be beneficial, but experts agree it likely can’t erase all the consequences of sleep deprivation.
“There are so many functions in the body touched by sleep health, it is possible that weekend recovery sleep can help with some, but not all, of them,” Grandner said.
Instead, consistency is key with sleep.
“Think of it this way: Getting good sleep is like having a healthy diet, and getting poor sleep is like eating an unhealthy diet,” he said. “Catching up on sleep on the weekends is like switching from cheeseburgers and pizza to salads on the weekend—it’s probably better overall and may reduce the negative impacts, but it may not be enough to prevent all of the negative outcomes associated with the poor diet during the week.”
If you find that you’re tired during the day, it’s best to try to make an effort to get more sleep at night, Sanjay Patel, MD, director of the Center for Sleep and Cardiovascular Outcomes Research at the University of Pittsburgh, told Health. An afternoon nap may also help some people add more sleep to their weekdays.
However, people can certainly sleep in on weekends or less busy days if these other strategies don’t work.
“I would be cautious on not overdoing sleep…perhaps one to two hours [per night] at most,” said Miller.
In addition to prioritizing quality sleep, people can also improve their heart health by maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, managing blood pressure, reducing stress, and more.
This story originally appeared on: Health News - Author:Kristen Fischer
