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Great news for those who enjoy a sleep in on the weekend! A new study presented to European Society of Cardiology Congress 2024 in London on September 1 looking at the potential benefits to ‘catching up’ on your sleep at the weekend has had exciting results. The study, which used data from 90,903 subjects has found ‘sufficient compensatory sleep is linked to a lower risk of heart disease.’ People who catch up on their sleep may see their risk fall by one fifth.
Sleep deprivation has been linked to raising your risk of many diseases and conditions, including heart disease. However, getting adequate high-quality sleep during the week is just not possible for many people globally. The responsibilities of work, school or family take over our weekdays getting in the way of an early night.
Catching up on sleep during the weekend or days off is a common practice when people are getting inadequate sleep during the week. The researchers of this study looked at whether this compensatory sleep helps heart health.
To evaluate the relationship between compensated weekend sleep and heart disease the 90,903 subjects were divided into four groups based on their amount of compensated or ‘catch-up sleep’ they could get on weekends. These were ordered from least compensated sleep in group 1 to most in group 4.
In the study those who reported having less than 7 hours sleep per night on average were defined as having sleep deprivation, this was 21.8% of participants. After following up it was found that those in group 4, who had the most compensatory sleep were 19% less likely to develop heart disease compared with those in group 1.
In the subgroup of participants with daily sleep deprivation, there was a 20% lower risk of developing heart disease in group 4 compared to group 1. Zechen Liu, a co-author of the study stated, “Our results show that 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 than those with the least”.
Getting enough high-quality sleep is important for our overall health and wellbeing. Good sleep has significant benefits in almost all aspects of how our body works. Not getting enough sleep has also been linked to raising your risk of many diseases and conditions. Sleep deprivation can raise your levels of stress hormones, which can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. Chronic sleep deprivation can also lead to high blood pressure.
While the relationship between heart health and sleep is well-established, the studies finding on catch-up sleep are relatively novel. This study shows that even for those who can’t get enough sleep during the week there is a potential reduction in risk of cardiovascular disease if they can get up to 16.06 hours of additional sleep on weekends compared to weekday sleep.
The findings of this study shine a light on the strength of the relationship between sleep and our health.
