Sleeping in on weekends could help protect your heart, study on compensatory sleep says

People who catch up on sleep lost during the week by sleeping in on weekends have a lower risk of heart disease, new research says

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Sleeping in on the weekends could lower your risk of developing heart disease by nearly 20 per cent, new research finds. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:15pm, 6 Sep 2024

A busy week with a schedule full of work meetings, children’s activities and exercise classes can often lead to nights of short and disrupted sleep.

But the good news is that catching up on sleep at the weekend could lower your risk of developing heart disease by nearly 20 per cent.

That is according to the findings of a new study presented to the European Society of Cardiology this month.

“Sufficient compensatory sleep is linked to a lower risk of heart disease,” said study co-author Yanjun Song of the State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease at Fuwai Hospital, at the National Centre for Cardiovascular Diseases in Beijing. “The association becomes even more pronounced among individuals who regularly experience inadequate sleep on weekdays.”

The study also looked at a subgroup of people with daily sleep deprivation – defined as having less than seven hours of sleep a night. Photo: Shutterstock

Previous studies have shown that catching up on sleep can mitigate the effects of sleep deprivation, but to date there has been a lack of research on how it affects heart health. Research suggests the benefits of weekend catch-up sleep are improvements in obesity, hypertension, depression and stroke risk.