Can You Make Up For Lost Sleep?
17-11-2010
Can You Make Up For Lost Sleep?
It seems that being overworked and tired throughout the week is part of the modern condition. Thank god for those two days off! Many people think that they can make up for the lost sleep in the weekend, lying in all day on Saturday and Sunday. However, the idea that somehow this makes good on your week’s ‘sleep debt’ is wrong and trying to catch up on sleep in the weekend can actually negatively affect your sleeping patterns.
The thing is that once you have missed out on sleep, that is it. The body doesn’t keep a ledger tracking sleep hours over the week. You couldn’t stay awake for four days and then sleep for three and maintain a healthy sleep cycle. The body needs regularity. It follows a daily cycle and rather than fighting it you should work with it.
This means that if you don’t think you are getting enough sleep during the week, you shouldn’t try and sleep more in the weekend. Instead, you should try to get more sleep at night in the week, even if it is just an extra hour each night, and you should try to stick to that same pattern in the weekend. Your body needs constancy and you shouldn’t deprive it during the week thinking you can make up for it in the weekend.
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