The demands of the working week, often influenced by school or work schedules, can lead to sleep disruption and deprivation. However, new research presented at ESC Congress 2024 shows that people that "catch up" on their sleep by sleeping in at weekends may see their risk of heart disease fall by one-fifth. "Sufficient compensatory sleep is linked to a lower risk of heart disease," said study co-author Mr.
Yanjun Song of the State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease, Fuwai Hospital, National Centre for Cardiovascular Disease, Beijing, China. "The association becomes even more pronounced among individuals who regularly experience inadequate sleep on weekdays." It is well known that people who suffer sleep deprivation 'sleep in' on days off to mitigate the effects of sleep deprivation.
However, there is a lack of research on whether this compensatory sleep helps heart health. The authors used data from 90,903 subjects involved in the UK Biobank project, and to evaluate the relationship between compensated weekend sleep and heart disease, sleep data was recorded using accelerometers and grouped by quartiles (divided into four approximately equal groups from most compensated sleep to least). Q1 (n = 22,475 was the least compensated, having -16.
05 hours to -0.26 hours (i.e.
, having even less sleep); Q2 (n = 22,901) had -0.26 to +0.45 hours; Q3 (n=22,692) had +0.
45 to +1.28 hours, and Q4 (n=22,695) had the most compensatory sleep (1.28 to 16.
06 hours). Sleep deprivation was self-r.