It’s well-known that sleep helps your heart function at its best. When you’re perpetually behind on sleep, your risk of heart problems like hypertension skyrockets, which can lead to coronary heart disease and stroke.

Evbayekha EO, Aiwuyo HO, Dilibe A, et al. Sleep Deprivation Is Associated With Increased Risk for Hypertensive Heart Disease: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study. The Cureus Journal of Medical Science. 2022;14(12):e33005.

Lao XQ, Liu X, Deng H-B, et al. Sleep Quality, Sleep Duration, and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Prospective Cohort Study With 60,586 Adults. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. 2018;14(1):109–117.

 

Unfortunately, evidence consistently suggests that most Americans are sleep-deprived.

Robbins R, Quan SF, Buysse DJ, et al. A Nationally Representative Survey Assessing Restorative Sleep in US Adults. Frontiers in Sleep. 2022;1.

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. What Are Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency? March 24, 2022.

We’re working longer hours, playing on our phones, and watching TV well into the night, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Hanson JA, Huecker MR. Sleep Deprivation. StatPearls. June 12, 2023.

No wonder it’s so tempting to sleep in on the weekends. 

 

It’s been unclear whether compensatory sleep, or catching up on sleep over the weekend, improves insulin sensitivity, inflammation, and blood pressure levels.

 Depner CM, Melanson EL, Eckel RH, et al. Ad libitum Weekend Recovery Sleep Fails to Prevent Metabolic Dysregulation during a Repeating Pattern of Insufficient Sleep and Weekend Recovery Sleep. Current Biology. 2019;29:957–967.

But new findings, presented at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual conference earlier this week, found that occasionally sleeping in may help protect your heart if you skimp out during the workweek.

European Society of Cardiology. Catching up on sleep on weekends may lower heart disease risk by up to 20%. August 29, 2024.

 

 

Catching up on sleep appears to protect the heart

 

Researchers from Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, China, analyzed the health data of more than 90,903 individuals sourced from the UK Biobank. The participants’ weekday and weekend sleep habits were briefly recorded using accelerometers. Nearly one in five were sleep-deprived, meaning they regularly got fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night.

“Our results show that for the significant proportion of the population in modern society that suffers from sleep deprivation, those who have the most ‘catch-up’ sleep at weekends have significantly lower rates of heart disease than those with the least,” co-author Zechen Liu, a researcher at Fuwai Hospital’s State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease, said in a press release.

European Society of Cardiology. Catching up on sleep on weekends may lower heart disease risk by up to 20%. August 29, 2024.

 

 

Why sleeping in on weekends may be good for the heart

 

During sleep, your heart rate and blood pressure drop, giving your hard-working heart a chance to rest, according to the National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute.

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Why Is Sleep Important? March 24, 2022.

 

Poor sleep, on the other hand, can negatively impact people’s diet, stress, and other lifestyle factors—all of which can contribute to cardiovascular disease, the American Heart Organization states.

American Heart Association. Sleep Disorders and Heart Health. June 26, 2023.

Compensatory sleep may help offset that damage, though more research is needed to better understand its impact. 

 

Natalie Solomon, PsyD, DMSM, a psychologist and behavioral sleep medicine specialist and assistant professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, says there are unanswered questions about the link between sleeping in on the weekends and heart health. She wonders whether the association can be partially explained by other factors. For example, people who sleep in on their days off may have more flexibility. “Readers should be careful not to interpret findings as ‘sleeping in is good for everyone,’ but rather to think about their individual sleep needs and goals,” she says. 

Chelsea Perry, DMD, the owner of Sleep Solutions in Westborough, MA, and a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, believes that compensatory sleep may very well lower the risk of heart disease but is similarly skeptical. Why? “The body loves consistency,” she says. 

 

What about social jet lag—the drowsiness that comes with sleeping in?

 

There are some downsides to sleeping in on the weekends. Research shows that switching up your sleep-wake cycle can lead to social jet lag, which, in the short term, can cause daytime fatigue, irritability, and poor mental health.

 Roenneberg T. How can social jetlag affect health? Nature Reviews Endocrinology. 2023;19(7):383–384.

 Tamura N, Komada Y, Inoue Y, et al. Social jetlag among Japanese adolescents: Association with irritable mood, daytime sleepiness, fatigue, and poor academic performance. Chronobiology International. 2021;39(3):1–12.

 O’Loughlin J, Casanova F, Jones SE, et al. Using Mendelian Randomisation methods to understand whether diurnal preference is causally related to mental health. Molecular Psychiatry. 2021;26:6305–6316.

“Your body’s internal clock gets confused, which can lead to metabolic changes, mood swings, or even increased cardiovascular risk,” Dr. Perry says.

 

Ultimately, more research is needed to better understand the cardiovascular effects of social jet lag. 

 

The effects vary person-to-person

 

According to Dr. Solomon, it’s crucial to recognize that the consequences of sleeping in vary person-to-person. “Sleeping in is not automatically 'good' or 'bad' because there is strong individual variation,” she says. For example, if someone is struggling with insomnia, sticking to a consistent wake time can help them fall and stay asleep. However, if someone who doesn’t have insomnia is struggling with daytime sleepiness, sleeping in on the weekends could be beneficial, she says. 

People, even physicians, should ask themselves whether their issue is falling or staying asleep—or simply struggling to prioritize their sleep due to other obligations like work or childcare. “The sleep recommendations for these two groups of people would be very different, at times even opposite,” Dr. Solomon says. 

While catching up on sleep on your days off may be beneficial, try not to see it as a permanent solution. The best approach is to aim for consistency, which ideally involves shooting for at least 7 hours of sleep a night, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About Sleep and Your Heart Health. May 15, 2024.

“Sleeping in can help a little, but creating a routine that allows for more sleep every night will likely bring more sustainable benefits in the long run,” Dr. Perry says.