I slept through the weekend… “The risk of ‘this disease’ decreased” Research results ‘surprising’

A study found that people who usually do not get enough sleep and catch up on sleep on weekends may have better heart health than those who do not.

According to NBC and CBS on the 29th (local time), at the recent European Society of Cardiology meeting, Chinese researchers announced the results of analyzing sleep and heart health data from participants in the UK Biobank, a British health research database.

Researchers classified 19,816 people who slept less than seven hours out of 99,003 people who recorded their sleep time in a health database as being “sleep deprived” and conducted a long-term follow-up study. The subjects were divided into four groups based on how much sleep they got on weekends.

When researchers compared the groups over a period of about 14 years, they found that those who slept the most on weekends had a 19 percent lower risk of heart disease than those who slept the least on weekends.

However, experts say that this study analyzed correlations, and does not mean that sleeping more on weekends directly leads to improved heart health. Dr. Muhammad Adil Rishi, an associate professor of sleep medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, explained that other factors that are not yet known may have influenced the results.

Experts also stressed that sleeping a few more hours on the weekends cannot completely reverse the negative effects of regular sleep deprivation.

“Sleeping longer on weekends may reduce fatigue and sleepiness, but it may not reduce the risk of obesity, which sleep-deprived people are more prone to,” Dr. Rishi said.

According to the National Health Insurance Corporation, the number of patients treated for sleep disorders in Korea increased by 28.5% in the past five years to 1,098,819 in 2022. If you do not get enough sleep, it can have a negative impact on your immune system and autonomic nervous system, and in severe cases, it can increase the risk of developing depression, dementia, diabetes, and obesity, so you should be careful.

The recommended daily sleep time for adults over 18 years of age recommended by the International Sleep Society is 7.5 hours. ▲Infants aged 2 to 13 months: 14 to 15 hours ▲Children aged 12 months to 3 years: 12 to 14 hours ▲Children aged 3 to 6 years: 11 to 13 hours ▲Children aged 6 to 12 years: 10 to 11 hours ▲Adolescents aged 12 to 18 years: 8.5 to 9.5 hours.

Reporter Ha Seung-yeon