I usually don’t get enough sleep, and I slept a lot on the weekends, so I thought, ‘This can’t be happening’

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A study found that people who don’t usually get enough sleep may have better heart health if they catch up on sleep on the weekends.

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.

Among 99,003 people who recorded their sleep times in a health database, researchers classified 19,816 people who slept less than 7 hours as being “sleep deprived” and conducted a long-term follow-up study on them.

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 point out 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 point out 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 and other health conditions that sleep-deprived people are prone to,” Dr. Rishi said.

The International Sleep Society recommends 7.5 hours of sleep per day for adults over 18 years of age. Infants aged 2 to 13 months should get 14 to 15 hours, children aged 12 months to 3 years should get 12 to 14 hours, children aged 3 to 6 years should get 11 to 13 hours, children aged 6 to 12 years should get 10 to 11 hours, and adolescents aged 12 to 18 years should get 8.5 to 9.5 hours.

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.

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