October 26, 2024, 10:17 am | Read time: 3 minutes
Between work and private appointments, and often due to stress, sleep can be in short supply during the week. Lack of sleep is also known to be a risk factor for heart health, among other things. However, according to a recent study, those affected seem to be able to counteract this by catching up on missed sleep at the weekend.
Sleep disorders are a widespread problem. In Germany, around 43 percent of adults are affected, as a survey published on the statistics platform “Statista” shows.1 Sleep disorders include problems falling asleep and staying asleep. The resulting lack of sleep can have serious health consequences in the long term. Among other things, it can increase the risk of cognitive decline and cardiovascular disease. The symptoms generally worsen when those affected realize this and stress about sleeping well or sleeping more. However, knowing about the findings of a recent study could have a more positive effect, i.e., taking some of the pressure off. According to the study, catching up on sleep is healthy for the heart.
Overview
Study on the effect of catching up on sleep on the heart
On weekends, when there’s time to relax and linger in bed, it appears that catching up on missed sleep can also benefit heart health. Scientists base this assumption on the findings of a recent study. This has not yet been published in the specialist press. The study’s findings were recently presented at a European Society of Cardiology congress. The study’s researchers explained that catching up on sleep over the weekend may reduce the risk of developing heart disease by approximately 20 percent. “This correlation is even more pronounced in people who regularly get too little sleep on weekdays,” explains co-study author Yanjun Song in a press release.2
With the study, Song and his team wanted to find out how (significantly) catching up on sleep affects heart health. FITBOOK has already reported on various corresponding studies, some with different results. In April 2023, an international team of researchers came to the conclusion that supposedly restorative sleep is not enough to bring the heart rate and blood pressure of sleep-deprived adults back to a normal level.3
Details of the study
However, the findings of the current study are encouraging. They are based on health data from around 90,900 participants in the British long-term study UK Biobank. The researchers determined the heart rates of the test subjects using measuring devices, according to the press release. Self-reported data identified the study participants who were experiencing sleep deprivation. For the subsequent evaluation, the researchers divided the women and men into four groups, each of which caught up on very little, little, more or a lot of sleep at the weekend.
In the sleep deprivation group, those subjects who caught up on sleep the most at the weekend were significantly less likely to develop heart disease over the course of the 14-year observation period. According to the data, their risk of disease was around 19 percent lower compared to the subjects who caught up on the least amount of sleep.
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Significance of the study
Further studies are planned in order to better understand how sleep behavior can affect the heart. The authors of the study emphasize this in the press release. Consequently, the current results are preliminary. It is not yet certain that catching up on sleep during the weekend can prevent heart disease. However, the observations once again showed the importance of getting enough sleep each night. Aiming for seven hours of sleep appears to be a beneficial guideline.