Sleeping In on Weekends Could Have This Surprising Health Benefit, New Research Says
Sleeping in on the weekend is always a mental health perk, but new research finds it could also have a positive impact on your health. Specifically, it may cut your risk of heart disease.
That’s the major takeaway from a new study, which found that catching up on sleep during days off could cause your risk of heart disease to fall by as much as a fifth.
This sure sounds like a dream, but is this for real? Here’s what the study discovered, plus what could be behind this.
Meet the expert: Cheng-Han Chen, MD, an interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, California.
What did the study find?
It’s important to point out that the study hasn’t been published yet. Instead, findings from the research were presented last week at the European Society of Cardiology’s Congress 2024.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data from nearly 91,000 people in the UK Biobank, which is a biomedical database. To look at the relationship between weekend sleep and heart disease, the researchers analyzed data from accelerometers and grouped people into how much extra sleep (if any) they got on the weekends. They also looked at self-reported information on how much sleep people regularly got, with nearly 22 percent of study participants saying they were sleep deprived (i.e. they had less than 7 hours of sleep a night.)
After following up for about 14 years (on average), people who made up the most sleep on weekends were 19 percent less likely to develop serious cardiovascular conditions—like heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation—compared to people who got the least sleep makeup time on weekends.
People who reported having daily sleep deprivation and also got a lot of extra sleep on weekends had a 20 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to those who did the least catching up on sleep.
“Sufficient compensatory sleep is linked to a lower risk of heart disease,” study co-author Yanjun Song of the State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease, Fuwai Hospital, National Centre for Cardiovascular Disease in Beijing, said in a statement. “The association becomes even more pronounced among individuals who regularly experience inadequate sleep on weekdays.”
Will more sleep lower my risk of heart disease?
It depends. Other research has found that getting too much sleep is linked with an increased risk of heart disease, so there does seem to be a sweet spot here. Still, getting enough sleep (seven to nine hours a night) does seem to be beneficial for heart health.
“Sleep helps to keep the heart healthy through many different mechanisms, including improving blood pressure and heart rate, controlling weight gain, and even moderating inflammation,” says Cheng-Han Chen, MD, an interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, California. “While sleeping extra on weekends may not fully offset any accumulated sleep debt during the week, it can provide some restoration that would otherwise be missing.”
On the flip side, not getting enough sleep isn’t great for your heart, Chen points out. “We think that having inadequate sleep increases heart disease risk through a variety of effects including increasing the risks of hypertension, diabetes, and obesity,” he says.
Should I change my sleep schedule?
It’s important to point out that this is just one study, and previous research has even found that sleeping in for more than two hours on the weekends was linked to worse cardiovascular health. So, the jury is out here on how beneficial this may be.
If you’re concerned about your sleep habits and heart health, Chen recommends doing your best to log seven or more hours of sleep a night, regardless of the day of the week. But he also suggests doing more for your heart health.
“Getting a healthy amount of sleep is just one aspect of maintaining a heart-healthy lifestyle,” he says. “Other steps people can take are to eat a healthy diet, get plenty of exercise, maintain a healthy weight, avoid tobacco and alcohol, and watch your blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels.”
And, if course, if you have a family history of heart disease or personal history of it, it's best to consult a doctor for specific guidance.
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