People who catch up on lost sleep on weekends can lower their risk of heart disease by up to 20%, research suggests.
Data from over 90,000 people in the UK suggests that compensating for a lack of sleep during the week with extra snooze time at the weekend can mitigate the negative effects of sleep deprivation.
Findings presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2024 showed that the risk of heart disease dropped by a fifth in people who stopped sleeping or even slept. less on weekends.
The study’s author Yanjun Song, from China’s National Center for Cardiovascular Disease at Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, said: “Sufficient compensatory sleep is linked to a lower risk of heart disease. The association is even more pronounced among individuals who regularly experience insufficient sleep on weekdays.”
The researchers looked at self-reported data from 90,903 people who are part of the UK Biobank project, which keeps medical and lifestyle records on half a million individuals. Of these, 19,816 met the criteria for being sleep deprived.
Hospital records and cause of death registry information were used to identify those who had heart disease, heart failure, irregular heart rhythm and stroke.
Over a 14-year follow-up period, the team found that people with the most extra sleep (ranging from 1.28 to 16.06 hours of extra sleep during weekends) were 19% less likely to develop heart disease than those with the least amount of compensatory sleep (ranging from 16.05 hours lost to 0.26 hours lost over the weekend).
In a subgroup of people with daily sleep deprivation, those with the most compensatory sleep had a 20% lower risk of developing heart disease than those with the least, the researchers said.
Zechen Liu, a co-author of the study, also from the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, said: “Our results show that for the significant part of the population in modern society that suffers from sleep deprivation, those who are most ‘ “Sleep on weekends has significantly lower rates of heart disease than those with the least.”
Prof James Leiper, an associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, who was not involved in the study, said: “Many of us do not get enough sleep due to work or family commitments, and while a weekend -not a substitute for a regular good night’s rest, this large study suggests that it may help reduce the risk of heart disease.
“We know that a lack of sleep can affect our overall well-being, and this research is an important reminder of how important it is to try to get at least seven hours of sleep each night. We look forward to future studies to better understanding how sleep patterns can affect the heart and how we can adapt modern lifestyles to help improve our health.”
