A new study out of China suggests that sleeping in on the weekend isn’t just fun, it can also be beneficial for your heart health.
Researchers at the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases at Beijing’s Fuyi Hospital found that sleep-deprived people who “caught” a weekend nap with their eyes closed had a 20 percent lower risk of heart disease. Their initial work was scheduled for presentation at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2024 in London on Sunday.
“Adequate restful sleep is associated with a lower risk of heart disease,” study co-author Yanjin Song said in a news release ahead of the meeting. “The association becomes even more pronounced in individuals who regularly experience inadequate sleep on weekdays.”
Song’s team used the UK Biobank, a health research database, to analyze the sleep habits of nearly 91,000 people. One limitation, the researchers noted, is that sleep deprivation (less than seven hours a night) was self-reported when the accelerometer recorded sleep data. About 22 percent of participants were considered sleep-deprived.
The researchers divided the participants into four groups based on how much sleep debt they paid off over the weekend, with the highest paying group getting 16 hours of sleep. Overall, people with the most restful sleep were 19 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular disease — including stroke, heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and atrial fibrillation — than those with the least. Have less compensatory sleep.
Among sleep-deprived participants, those who paid off the highest sleep debt had a 20 percent lower risk. Biological sex had no effect on the results.
“Our findings show that for a significant proportion of the population in modern society who suffer from sleep deprivation, those who get the most ‘catch-up’ sleep on the weekend have the highest rates of heart disease. significantly less than those who have less,” study author Zechen Liu said in a news release.
Can too much sleep be bad for you?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one-third of American adults do not get the recommended minimum of seven hours of sleep. Insufficient sleep is most common in these populations:
- Male: 37%
- Ages 45 to 64: 39%
- Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 49%
From reducing stress to reducing the risk of chronic conditions, adequate sleep is vital to your physical and mental health and well-being.
Since an hour of lost sleep can take days to recover from, trying to make up for a week’s worth of deprivation on the weekend may be insufficient. The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) Panel on Sleep Timing and Variability highlighted these and other findings in a 2023 literature review published in the journal Sleep health.
Proper sleep hygiene, advises the CDC, requires a consistent sleep schedule in which you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day—including weekends. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine takes it a step further, advocating regular sleep even when you’re on vacation. Such a routine keeps your circadian rhythm, or body clock, in check. Out-of-sync rhythms increase the risk of developing immune, neurological, psychiatric, and cardiometabolic disorders. A study published earlier this year in the journal to sleep People with irregular sleep patterns were found to have a higher risk of premature death.
This does not mean that lying here is indulgent and punishable by death. Still, you may be more aware of the negative effects of an off-kilter circadian rhythm than you realize. For example, if you regularly wake up at 6 a.m. on weekdays but sleep until 11 a.m. on weekends, you probably aren’t tired enough to go to bed at 11 p.m. on Sunday. , the minimum time you need to sleep in the dream world. Seven hours of sleep rolls around again before 6 a.m. Monday morning. That way, you already start another sleep-deprived week, and the social jet lag continues.
So, how can you make up for lost sleep on the weekends without opening yourself up to health problems? The key lies in moderation. Sleep by all means, says the NSF, but don’t aim for more than two hours of sleep on your days off.
For more information on healthy sleep habits:
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