Weekend catchup sleep not beneficial to heart health
Catching up on sleep over the weekend may not help the heart
By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS
ANAHEIM, California — Using the weekend to catch up on sleep may not be good for heart health, a new study suggests.
The study, presented Tuesday at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions, included more than 21,000 older female health care professionals without a history of cardiovascular disease or cancer. Those who spent two or more hours catching up on sleep over the weekend — what researchers call “sleep debt” — were more likely to have poor cardiovascular health.
Sleep expert Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Ph.D., said the findings suggest people who catch up on sleep over the weekend aren’t counteracting the harmful effects of not getting enough sleep the rest of the week.
“You’re not really salvaging yourself,” said St-Onge, an associate professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia University Department of Medicine in New York City, who was not part of the new study.
It’s best to get at least seven hours of sleep each night and to go to bed and wake at about the same time every day, she said.
