Science says getting extra sleep on the weekends could help save you from heart disease

If you have a habit of sleeping in more on the weekends to recover from the sleep debt you've accumulated during the week, keep doing it! Your body and your future health will thank you.

According to brand new research conducted by the State Laboratory of Infectious Diseases in China, you can solve some of the heart-related health issues caused by not getting the right amount of sleep with more sleep at a later time... like on the weekend.

For example, catching some extra rest on the weekend can reduce the risk of developing heart disease by upwards of 19% according to research from scientists in China according to CNN, which quoted the the new research's abstract in a recent report.

“The association becomes even more pronounced among individuals who regularly experience inadequate sleep on weekdays,” co-author of the new study and Yanjun Song of the National Centre for Cardiovascular Disease at Fuwai Hospital in Beijing explained in a press release.

The study was presented at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual congress on September 1st, 2024, in London, United Kingdom. The authors of the new study also issued a statement on what they discovered.

Science on whether or not humans could restore their heart health when it comes to any damage inflicted from a lack of sleep has been pretty sparse, however, the new studies provided some very compelling evidence of the benefits your heart and gain from sleeping in on the weekends.

Researchers looked at data from roughly 90,000 people from the British UK Biobank database to draw their conclusions on the benefits of extra sleep over the weekend.

Of the total participants analyzed, 19,816 of them were classified as sleep-deprived since they reported sleeping less than seven hours per night.

Researchers examined data from hospitalizations and death records over 14 years and assessed the heart health of the individuals being analyzed.

From the information that was gathered, researchers identified diagnoses of heart conditions such as ischemic heart disease (IHD), heart failure (HF), atrial fibrillation (AF), and stroke according to CNN.

“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.” explained study co-author Zechen Liu according to a press release on the research.

Currently, 55% of the world's population lives in urban areas according to the United Nations World Cities Report 2022. Urban areas are also places where people tend to be more sleep-deprived, something several previous studies have pointed out.

According to the World Cities Report 2022 by 2050, the world's urban population will be 68%, which could mean the number of heart-related problems due to sleep deprivation may see an increase.

With increasingly longer working hours, more rest time tends to be the most affected area of people's lives. But you can avoid the problematic issues caused by weekday sleep deprivation if you make some extra time on the weekends to sleep in, something you should do if you live in a city and are sleep-deprived!

Several studies have indicated that a lack of sleep, which is defined as sleeping less than seven hours per night, can have negative effects on health. So why not avoid the effects poor sleep can have on your health by ensuring that you get the proper amount of sleep?

Ideally, you should maintain a consistent sleep routine throughout the week. But if the latest study on the benefits of extra sleep is correct, adding in additional hours of rest where you can help save you from heart disease, even if that extra sleep needs to happen on the weekends.

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