It’s America’s favorite weekend activity: catching up on sleep. But when you sleep in, are you really making up for lost sleep?
“That’s a hard one to get a lot of consensus on in the sleep community,” says sleep medicine physician W. Christopher Winter, owner of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine in Virginia. “The answer is probably that you can catch up on sleep, but only to an extent. If you can get some extra sleep a few days after a particularly short night, it will probably help you function better and feel more rested. But if you’ve been sleep deprived for months or years, that sleep is probably long gone.”
For example, in one study published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, researchers found that in people who are chronically sleep deprived, sleeping for 10 hours during one night can improve their alertness and ability to perform tasks the next day. However, they also found that it doesn’t counteract the health effects of sleep deprivation over the long term.
After all, five short nights add up quickly to a sleep deficit of 20-plus hours, but no one is sleeping that many extra hours over the weekend. (If they are, larger health issues are likely to blame.) Even when they do sleep in, many adults can’t sleep more than nine or 10 hours on the weekends. That’s because, as you age, your body’s “let’s stay asleep” system gets more lax so that it becomes progressively more difficult to sleep late into the day like you did during your teenage years, says Kristen Knutson, a biomedical anthropologist at the University of Chicago specializing in the relationship between sleep and health. Plus, who has the time to sleep for 48 hours straight over the weekend?
But even if sleeping in every now and then can keep you from falling asleep in your giant cup of coffee during the week, it might not always be worth it. When your sleep schedule varies from night to night – like when you skimp on sleep during the week and hibernate on weekends – you increase your risk of obesity as well as chronic disease such as Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, she says. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has even classified shift work that throws off sleep schedules as a Group 2A carcinogen, meaning it most likely causes cancer in people.
What’s more, oversleeping on the weekends can set you up for future sleep problems. After all, if you wake up at noon on Sunday, it’s going to be hard to go back to bed at 10 p.m. so you can be bright eyed when your alarm goes off at 6 the next morning. “This is how most cases of insomnia get started,” Winter says.
So how are you supposed to make up for lost sleep without messing up your health – and winding up even more tired? Follow these expert-approved tips:
Split the difference. When trying to catch up on sleep, it’s important to minimize any differences between your weeknight and weekend sleep schedules, Knutson says. So, when you are vying for a couple hours of extra sleep, don’t just wake up two hours later than usual. Try going to bed one hour earlier and sleeping one hour later. It’ll help keep you from throwing off your sleep schedule and not being able to sleep the next night, she says.
Take more naps. Apart from perking you up, short naps can reverse the negative effects of a poor night’s sleep on your body’s neuroendocrine and immune systems, according to 2015 research published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Knutson recommends capping all naps at 15 to 20 minutes. If you sleep longer, you’re likely to wake up even more tired than when you hunkered down for your nap, she says.
Get serious about catching up. When most people sleep in, they do it with the blinds open, hitting snooze over and over again. And, likewise, when they nap, they do it on the couch with football games playing in the background. That’s not going to equate to the quality sleep you need, Winter says. When trying to score some extra shut-eye, make sure your environment is conducive to deep sleep. Turn out all of the lights, shut the blinds, turn off the TV and opt for the bed over the couch, he says.
Can You Really Catch Up On Sleep? was originally published on U.S. News & World Report.
Foods That Are Making You Sleepy
Your Sad Desk Salads(01 of05)
Open Image ModalString Cheese And Yogurt(02 of05)
Open Image ModalSad but true: Dairy could be behind your fatigue. You may have digested it just fine when you were younger, but intolerances to the proteins in dairy (casein and whey) can develop as we age, and tiredness is a hallmark symptom. "At least 50 to 60 percent of my patients complain of fatigue, and I would estimate that 20 to 30 percent of those people feel better off dairy," says Lyla Blake-Gumbs, MD, from the Center for Integrative Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. (The mechanism isn't entirely clear, but it's believed that the body mistakenly develops an immunological reaction to the proteins, building an army of antibodies to mobilize against the proteins whenever they show up, resulting in fatigue.) Fatigue isn't usually the only symptom, but it's possible for it to present without GI problems, says Blake-Gumbs, which is why few people connect the dots to their diet. "Dairy is ubiquitous in our food supply," she says. "And a lot of processed foods that you wouldn't think of as dairy have milk solids and proteins in them. For example, anything with caramel flavoring likely has dairy additives in it."
Pick Yourself Up: If you notice an energy lag after you eat dairy, talk to your doctor about going on an elimination diet, a method that Blake-Gumbs often uses with patients in which all potential culprits are removed from your diet, then reintroduced one at a time to see which one is causing the problem. (credit:tacar/iStock/Thinkstock)
Bananas Or Nuts(03 of05)
Open Image ModalThere's a reason bananas are often presented as a fix for muscle cramps: They're high in magnesium, a mineral that helps relax muscle cells. "We give people magnesium at night to help them sleep," says Blake-Gumbs. Another magnesium source? Nuts, particularly almonds, cashews and peanuts. The dosage that'll make someone tired is different for everyone, but you're more likely to feel the effects if you're too low on magnesium to start with.
Pick Yourself Up: As long as you're not deficient in magnesium, you should be fine to eat either bananas or nuts on their own. Symptoms of a magnesium deficiency (according to the most recent National Health And Nutrition Survey that examined magnesium intake, nearly half of all Americans aren't meeting recommended levels) include loss of appetite, nausea and fatigue, and those with type 2 diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders or celiac disease are at particularly high risk. (credit:CBCK-Christine/iStock/Thinkstock)
Last Night's Late Dinner(04 of05)
Open Image ModalSometimes crazy days mean that your last meal comes right before bedtime. But just as the right foods can help you drift off into deep, restorative slumber, the wrong ones can result in a poor night's sleep, leaving you dragging the next day. Among the culprits: acidic foods like meat, eggs and dairy that can lead to nighttime acid reflux. "If you eat something acidic within two hours of going to bed, it'll probably still be in your stomach and could cause some gastroesophageal reflux," says Blake-Gumbs. "If you're someone who deals with acid reflux often, you shouldn't be eating those foods even four hours before you go to bed."
Pick Yourself Up: When you just can't avoid eating close to bedtime, stick with non-acidic, or alkaline, foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts like almonds, which won't cause sleep-disrupting GI issues. (credit:Jacek Chabraszewski/iStock/Thinkstock)
That Occasional Sugary Or Fatty Indulgence(05 of05)
Open Image ModalHere's one downside to a super-nutritious diet -- when you decide to treat yourself, your body likely won't handle it very well. "Research indicates that our gastro-intestinal tract adjusts to what we eat," Politi says. "If you're sticking to a low-fat, low-sugar diet, you start to produce less of the gastric juices and enzymes that help digest sugar and fat easily." And that doesn't just spell digestive trouble; it can lower your energy afterward, too, likely more so than if you'd been eating less-than-superbly all along. Politi knows this firsthand. As a nutritionist, her own diet is the kind we all aspire to, and when she occasionally has a slice of cake at her office's monthly employee birthday parties, "I feel so lousy, like I need to take a nap immediately," she says.
Pick Yourself Up: No one's advocating total treat deprivation, but when you decide it's time for something more sugary or fattening than you typically eat, just be prepared for the slump that may follow. (credit:mitrs3/iStock/Thinkstock)