Sleep Binge On Weekends: Can You Actually Catch Up With Lost Sleep?

With the crazy hours at work and never ending pile of work to be done, we lost a lot of sleep during the weekdays and then go on a sleep binge on the weekend to make up for it. But does that actually work? Can we actually catch up with lost sleep by sleeping all day on the weekends?

Sleeping at the end of the day gives us the rest our body needs direly. An overused machine can break faster; this also applies to our body. After all the activity during the day, our body craves for a well-deserved break where it can repair its organs and cells after it’s being forced to perform well beyond their limits. This is the reason why we need proper sleep.

At night, our body needs a sufficient time for it to do “maintenance” on its cells. New cell productions also happen at this hour. Our red blood cells that bring oxygen to our brain are usually produced at the first third of the night after we went to sleep. How can our body do all these new red blood cell productions if we’re still active at those hours and not giving our body any rest? So, it’s not unusual for people with lack of sleep feels tired easily and gets dizzy when doing all their day-to-day activity.

Unfortunately for those people, going on a sleep binge on the weekend does not actually help you catch up with all the lost sleep on the weekdays! It does not actually do much to make up all the hours you lost that can be used in cell repair and productions. Daniel Cohen, MD, a neurologist at Harvard medical school said that extra sleeping hours during the weekend is not sufficient to fulfill your need for rest.

Keep in mind that lack of sleep does a lot of damage to your health in the long run. Other than numerous of deadly cardiovascular diseases, you are also at risk for a drastic weight gain. It is advisable for us to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night.

Set an alarm or a reminder every hour before you need to go to sleep. That way you realize that you need to finish every errand you need to do within that hour, and get the targeted 8 hours of sleep. Remember, an irregular sleeping hour is part of an unhealthy lifestyle that can do a number to your health!

Originally published on Fimela.com. Translated and edited by Gold's Gym Indonesia.