This sleep hack can help your heart health
Key Takeaways
Research suggests that sleeping in on weekends may lower the risk of heart disease for those who are sleep-deprived during the week, offering a potential protective effect.
Sleeping in on weekends may cause short-term issues like fatigue and mood swings due to disrupting your body's internal clock, with potential long-term cardiovascular impacts still unclear.
The impact of compensatory sleep varies from person to person, and while it may help some, consistency in sleep patterns is recommended.
It’s well-known that sleep helps your heart function at its best. When you’re perpetually behind on sleep, your risk of heart problems like hypertension skyrockets, which can lead to coronary heart disease and stroke.[][]
Unfortunately, evidence consistently suggests that most Americans are sleep-deprived.[][] We’re working longer hours, playing on our phones, and watching TV well into the night, according to the National Institutes of Health.[] No wonder it’s so tempting to sleep in on the weekends.
It’s been unclear whether compensatory sleep, or catching up on sleep over the weekend, improves insulin sensitivity, inflammation, and blood pressure levels.[] But new findings, presented at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual conference earlier this week, found that occasionally sleeping in may help protect your heart if you skimp out during the workweek.[]
Catching up on sleep appears to protect the heart
Researchers from Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, China, analyzed the health data of more than 90,903 individuals sourced from the UK Biobank. The participants’ weekday and weekend sleep habits were briefly recorded using accelerometers. Nearly one in five were sleep-deprived, meaning they regularly got fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night.
The research team then evaluated the participants’ hospital records and death certificates to identify who had been diagnosed with cardiac diseases, including ischemic heart disease (IHD), heart failure (HF), atrial fibrillation (AF), and stroke over the course of almost 14 years. The researchers found that those who slept in on their days off had a roughly 20% lower risk of heart disease compared to those who were sleep-deprived on a daily basis. The takeaway: It may be a good idea to extend your snooze on Saturdays and Sundays.
“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,” co-author Zechen Liu, a researcher at Fuwai Hospital’s State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease, said in a press release.[]
Why sleeping in on weekends may be good for the heart
During sleep, your heart rate and blood pressure drop, giving your hard-working heart a chance to rest, according to the National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute.[]
Poor sleep, on the other hand, can negatively impact people’s diet, stress, and other lifestyle factors—all of which can contribute to cardiovascular disease, the American Heart Organization states.[] Compensatory sleep may help offset that damage, though more research is needed to better understand its impact.
Natalie Solomon, PsyD, DMSM, a psychologist and behavioral sleep medicine specialist and assistant professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, says there are unanswered questions about the link between sleeping in on the weekends and heart health. She wonders whether the association can be partially explained by other factors. For example, people who sleep in on their days off may have more flexibility. “Readers should be careful not to interpret findings as ‘sleeping in is good for everyone,’ but rather to think about their individual sleep needs and goals,” she says.
Chelsea Perry, DMD, the owner of Sleep Solutions in Westborough, MA, and a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, believes that compensatory sleep may very well lower the risk of heart disease but is similarly skeptical. Why? “The body loves consistency,” she says.
What about social jet lag—the drowsiness that comes with sleeping in?
There are some downsides to sleeping in on the weekends. Research shows that switching up your sleep-wake cycle can lead to social jet lag, which, in the short term, can cause daytime fatigue, irritability, and poor mental health.[][][] “Your body’s internal clock gets confused, which can lead to metabolic changes, mood swings, or even increased cardiovascular risk,” Dr. Perry says.
It’s unclear what the long-term risks of social jet lag are, but some data suggests that inconsistent sleep-wake times could contribute to an irregular heart rate.[]
Ultimately, more research is needed to better understand the cardiovascular effects of social jet lag.
The effects vary person-to-person
According to Dr. Solomon, it’s crucial to recognize that the consequences of sleeping in vary person-to-person. “Sleeping in is not automatically 'good' or 'bad' because there is strong individual variation,” she says. For example, if someone is struggling with insomnia, sticking to a consistent wake time can help them fall and stay asleep. However, if someone who doesn’t have insomnia is struggling with daytime sleepiness, sleeping in on the weekends could be beneficial, she says.
People, even physicians, should ask themselves whether their issue is falling or staying asleep—or simply struggling to prioritize their sleep due to other obligations like work or childcare. “The sleep recommendations for these two groups of people would be very different, at times even opposite,” Dr. Solomon says.
While catching up on sleep on your days off may be beneficial, try not to see it as a permanent solution. The best approach is to aim for consistency, which ideally involves shooting for at least 7 hours of sleep a night, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.[] “Sleeping in can help a little, but creating a routine that allows for more sleep every night will likely bring more sustainable benefits in the long run,” Dr. Perry says.