April 23, 2019
According to a recent study, sleeping in on weekends, to “catch up” to the late hours of sleep during the week, would be useless or even harmful to health. Explanations.
Sleeping in does not make up for the sleep deficit
If you think your weekend sleepovers are catching up with your accumulated late sleep hours during the week, you are wrong! According to a survey revealed by our colleagues from France Inter on April 17, conducted by a team of American researchers from the University of Colorado and published in the journal Current Biology, sleeping more on weekends would not only be useless, but above all bad for your health.
To carry out their work, the scientists observed the sleep of 36 healthy adults for 9 nights. They were randomly separated into three groups according to their sleep time: 5 hours per night, 9 hours per night and for the last group, 5-hour nights during the week but no limit during the weekends.
Sleeping more on weekends increases insulin resistance
First conclusion of the researchers: increasing sleep time on weekends, compared to the week, would have no positive impact on metabolism. In question, the upheaval of the circadian cycle, that is to say the rhythm of sleep and wakefulness during a day: ” Waking up late leads to desynchronization by preventing the body from being exposed to morning light “.
Indeed, if it appears that the lack of sleep has a negative impact on the metabolism, it would seem that the group of people who slept longer on weekends reacts as if they were experiencing jet lag, increasing insulin resistance as in diabetics. ” Recovery sleep on weekends is not an effective strategy for preventing metabolic dysregulation associated with recurrent insufficient sleep »Conclude the authors.
Aurélie Giraud
Read also : 10 tips to fall asleep easily
