During the week, a good night's sleep sometimes gets lost, so sleeping in at the weekend seems like a good idea. But is that really the case?
A new study provides a succinct answer to this question:No, it doesn't work.
Read also: 'You eat that many calories more when you're sleep deprived'
Thirty subjects were given a sleep schedule that corresponds to the sleep pattern that many people have:during the week they sleep too little and at the weekend they sleep in. The researchers monitored their health and performance during the experiment.
After a few days of too little sleep, the first effects are noticeable. The subjects were sleepy and presented worse due to a reduced ability to concentrate. Furthermore, the molecule interleukin-6 increased in the body, which is a sign that inflammation is present in the body.
During the weekend, the subjects were allowed to sleep in. Afterwards, the subjects appeared to be less sleepy. They had less interleukin-6 in their blood and the stress hormone cortisol was less present. Nevertheless, the subjects' performance did not improve and the ability to concentrate remained poor.
So, sleeping in does eliminate some of the adverse effects of sleep deprivation, but it seems that two nights of extra sleep is not enough to compensate for mild sleep deprivation. Only one period of sleep deprivation was investigated during the study, so it is not known what the effect is of sleeping too little for weeks and sleeping in at the weekend. It is quite possible that repeating that cycle has even more adverse effects than the research shows.
Source:Scientia s
