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Journalism of Courage
Sleeping like a log over the weekends for long hours can make up for the damage done to your body by a lack of sleep during the week, according to an exhaustive 14-year study done by the State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease in China. Those who got the most ‘catch-up’ sleep, found researchers, had a 20 per cent lower risk of developing heart attacks and strokes than those who remained sleep-deprived.
Undoubtedly, this research on the impact of compensatory sleep, which used data from nearly 91,000 people who reported sleeping less than seven hours every night, is significant. But the question is whether this is practical enough to follow. The bigger question is whether weekend lie-ins can indeed be a replacement for a regular good night’s rest. For that, let’s understand the link between sleep and heart health.
It can also affect the production of hormones that help regulate blood sugar levels. This can lead to insulin resistance and other cardiovascular risks.
Although the results validate weekend sleeping, this solution may not be practical. That’s because it would require really long hours of sleep over the weekend to offset your sleep deficit. Which means, your other relaxation and socialisation activities will have to take a backseat every weekend. Is that sustainable? Also a National Sleep Foundation study in 2023 had shown it takes a much longer time to recover from a single hour of lost sleep, so you definitely need more than 48 hours of the weekend to make up for five days of sleep deprivation every week.
Besides, sleep hygiene demands that you be consistent with the time you wake up and sleep. If you break that pattern all of a sudden on a weekend, it is disruptive for your body, affecting your metabolism. If you wake up late, you will sleep late and have shortened sleep for Monday morning when you need to be thoroughly rested.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine advocates sleep regularity even when you’re on vacation.
Therefore avoid sleep deficit in the first place, and try to build your own boundaries of when to fall asleep to get at least six to seven hours of sleep. I avoid stimulants like tea, coffee and sugar late evening. You can include hot milk, multigrain roti and eggs for your last meal as they are rich in tryptophan, an amino acid that helps in the regulation of the sleep hormone melatonin. Diet can help you maintain sleep schedules.
