Although sleeping in is not recommended, people who “catch up” on weekday sleep by sleeping in on the weekend are less likely to develop cardiovascular disease, a study has found.
- Researchers have evaluated the link between compensatory sleep and certain heart diseases such as ischemic heart disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and stroke.
- Among the 90,000 study participants, those who “caught up” the most on weekends were 19 percent less likely to develop heart disease than those who “caught up” the least.
- In the subgroup of patients reporting daily sleep deprivation, those who had the most compensatory sleep had a 20% lower risk of developing heart disease compared with those who had the least.
Caught between work demands, school schedules or screens, many of us are tempted to compensate for short weeknights by sleeping in on the weekends. While we know that such a change of pace can be harmful to our health, not all the research, which is rare on this subject, supports this.
According to a new study presented at the Annual Congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), which runs from August 30 in London, “catching up” on sleep could actually reduce heart risk by a fifth.
Nearly a quarter of people are sleep deprived
To reach this conclusion, researchers from the State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease in China examined the profiles of more than 90,000 participants in the UK Biobank, in order to assess the link between compensatory sleep and certain heart diseases such as ischemic heart disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and stroke. Their sleep rhythms were recorded using a sensor that they wore on their wrist during the night. In total, only 21.8% of them said they suffered from sleep deprivation, defined as less than 7 hours per night.
The volunteers were divided into four equivalent groups: those who slept less at the weekend (0.26 to 16.05 hours less sleep: first quartile), those who slept between 0.26 hours less and 0.45 hours more (second quartile), those who slept a little more than during the week (0.45 to 1.28 hours more sleep: third quartile) and finally, the participants who had the most compensatory sleep and slept between 1.28 and 16.6 hours more at the weekend (last quartile).
Compensatory sleep reduces risk of heart disease
After a median follow-up period of 14 years, the researchers found that those in the group who “caught up” the most on sleep (quartile 4) were 19 percent less likely to develop heart disease than those who “caught up” the least (quartile 1). “Adequate compensatory sleep is linked to a lower risk of heart disease”summarize the researchers in a press release.
“The association is even more pronounced in people who regularly suffer from insufficient sleep during the week.” Indeed, in the subgroup of patients reporting daily sleep deprivation, those who had the most compensatory sleep on weekends had a 20% lower risk of developing heart disease than those who had the least. While women are generally more affected by sleep disturbances than men, “The analysis, however, showed no difference” between the two sexes.
