December 23, 2024

Sleep Myth Busted: A Weekend of Extra Sleep Isn’t the Cure-All

If we think we can compensate for lack of sleep during the week by sleeping in on the weekend, were mistaken. For the first three nights, the individuals were allowed to sleep up to 10 hours per night to achieve a standard sleep level. For the next five nights, the participants sleep was limited to five hours per night, followed by 2 recovery nights, in which they were once again enabled to sleep up to 10 hours per night. “Not only does sleep affect our cardiovascular health, but it also affects our weight, our psychological health, our capability to focus and our capability to maintain healthy relationships with others, amongst numerous other things.

New reveals that sleeping just 5 hours per night over a week intensifies cardiovascular health steps, with weekend catch-up sleep being insufficient to normalize them. This sleep deprivation pattern may make people more prone to heart disease in the future.
If we believe we can compensate for lack of sleep throughout the week by oversleeping on the weekend, were misinterpreted. A current study from Penn State reveals that when we limit our sleep to just five hours nightly throughout the week, our cardiovascular health, including heart rate and blood pressure, weakens. Additionally, trying to recuperate lost sleep throughout the weekend is insufficient to return these procedures to typical.
” Only 65% of grownups in the U.S. frequently sleep the suggested 7 hours per night, and theres a great deal of proof suggesting that this lack of sleep is related to cardiovascular illness in the long term,” said Anne-Marie Chang, associate teacher of biobehavioral health and co-author of the work, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. “Our research study reveals a prospective mechanism for this longitudinal relationship, where enough succeeding hits to your cardiovascular health while youre young could make your heart more prone to heart disease in the future.”
For the very first three nights, the individuals were enabled to sleep up to 10 hours per night to achieve a baseline sleep level. For the next five nights, the participants sleep was restricted to 5 hours per night, followed by 2 recovery nights, in which they were once again allowed to sleep up to 10 hours per night.

Chang discussed that the teams research study is special because it determined heart rate and blood pressure numerous times throughout the day for the period of the research study, which enabled them to represent any impacts that time of day might have on heart rate and blood pressure. For instance, heart rate is naturally lower upon waking than later in the day, so determining heart rate multiple times throughout the day can account for this distinction.
The team, which consisted of David Reichenberger, lead author and graduate trainee in biobehavioral health, Penn State, discovered that heart rate increased by almost one beat per minute (BPM) with each successive day of the study. Particularly, the average standard heart rate was 69 BPM, while the average heart rate by the end of the research study on the 2nd day of recovery was nearly 78 BPM.
” Both heart rate and systolic blood pressure increased with each successive day and did not return to baseline levels by the end of the healing period,” Reichenberger stated. “So, regardless of having the extra opportunity to rest, by the end of the weekend of the study, their cardiovascular systems still had not recovered.”
Chang kept in mind that longer durations of sleep healing might be required to recuperate from multiple, consecutive nights of sleep loss.
” Sleep is a biological process, but its also a behavioral one and one that we often have a lot of control over,” Chang stated. “Not just does sleep affect our cardiovascular health, however it likewise affects our weight, our mental health, our capability to focus and our capability to preserve healthy relationships with others, among lots of other things. As we find out more and more about the significance of sleep, and how it impacts everything in our lives, my hope is that it will end up being more of a focus for improving ones health.”
Recommendation: “Recovery sleep following sleep limitation is insufficient to return elevated daytime heart rate and systolic blood pressure to baseline levels” by David A. Reichenberger, Kelly M. Ness, Stephen M. Strayer, Gina Marie Mathew, Margeaux M. Schade, Orfeu M. Buxton and Anne-Marie Chang, 27 June 2023, Psychosomatic Medicine.DOI: 10.1097/ PSY.0000000000001229.
Other Penn State authors on the paper include Stephen Strayer, former graduate trainee in neuroscience; Margeaux Schade, assistant research teacher of biobehavioral health; and Orfeu Buxton, Elizabeth Fenton Susman Professor of Biobehavioral Health. Kelly Ness, postdoctoral fellow, University of Washington, and Gina Marie Mathew, postdoctoral associate, Stony Brook University, likewise are authors.