Can You Catch Up on Sleep?
Yes, yawns are contagious, but that’s not the main reason we all seem sleepy.1 In a recent CDC survey, 35 percent of Americans said they get fewer than the recommended seven hours of shut-eye every night. And that’s a big deal considering we need sleep to rest, recharge, reduce stress, and even lose weight.
Related: 27 Easy Ways to Sleep Better Tonight
If you’re the type of person who’s clocking four to five hours of sleep (and probably pounding Red Bulls or cups of coffee) every weeknight, chances are you’ve tried to catch up on sleep by snoozing for a few extra hours on the weekend. But is it really possible to get back those lost zzzs?
Sleep Debt
Just like student loans, our bodies require regular payments—luckily seven to nine hours of sleep every night will do. If we start to sink below the seven-hour minimum, we fall into sleep debt. Over time, as that debt climbs, it becomes more and more difficult to catch up on sleep.
Related: 24 Tricks to Survive Hot Summer Nights (Without AC)
A few restless nights—what sleep researchers call acute sleep deprivation—is an easy debt to repay. Just snooze for three to four more hours than usual over the weekend, and you should be back on track.2 It’s much harder to catch up on sleep if you have chronic sleep deprivation—logging fewer than five hours for an extended period of time.
In one study, after sleeping for six hours per night for two weeks, study participants’ physical and cognitive abilities were impaired on a level similar to someone who had gone without sleep for two nights straight.3 But even when they were walking zombies, most people had no idea they were so sleep deprived. That foggy state becomes the scary norm.
Related: 32 Solutions for When You Can’t Sleep
The Takeaway
It’s possible to catch up on sleep if you’ve had a couple of rough nights. But the longer we go without zzzs, the harder it is to get ‘em back.
Originally published December 2011. Updated August 2015.
More from Greatist:
Can’t Sleep? This 10-Minute Yoga Routine Will Help You Fall Asleep Fast
The Best (and Worst) Positions for Sleeping
The Weird Tricks Experts Use When They Can’t Sleep
Works Cited
Yearning to yawn: the neural basis of contagious yawning. Schürmann M, Hesse MD, Stephan KE. NeuroImage, 2005, Apr.;24(4):1053-8119.
Effects of recovery sleep after one work week of mild sleep restriction on interleukin-6 and cortisol secretion and daytime sleepiness and performance. Pejovic S, Basta M, Vgontzas AN. American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism, 2013, Aug.;305(7):1522-1555.
The cumulative cost of additional wakefulness: dose-response effects on neurobehavioral functions and sleep physiology from chronic sleep restriction and total sleep deprivation. Van Dongen HP, Maislin G, Mullington JM. Sleep, 2003, Jul.;26(2):0161-8105.
