After waking up early every morning during the week, many people like to catch up by sleeping in later on the weekends. But according to a study by researchers from Penn State University’s College of Medicine, getting extra sleep on the weekends actually doesn’t make up for the sleep debt caused by not getting enough rest during the week.
After going to bed late or waking up early every morning during the week, many people like to catch up by sleeping in later on the weekends.
But according to a study by researchers from Penn State Hershey, getting extra sleep on the weekends actually doesn’t make up for the sleep debt caused by not getting enough rest during the week.
30 adults participated in the study, which put the subjects on a 13 day schedule that included limited sleep followed by extra time to sleep in for a couple days.
The subjects established a normal eight hour night’s sleep for the first four nights, then researchers woke them up after six hours for six nights, and finally gave them ten hours of sleep for the last two nights.
Researchers measured the inflammation and stress hormone levels in the subjects at various times during the study, and found that not getting enough sleep increased levels of both cortisol, and interleukin-6.
The authors of the study wrote that “two nights of extended recovery sleep may not be sufficient to overcome behavioral alertness deficits resulting from mild sleep restriction.”
Experts recommend getting an extra hour or two of sleep every night instead of just two nights of recovery sleep to establish a healthy pattern.
