Catching Up on Sleep on Weekends Links to 20% Lower Risk of Developing Heart Disease

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A recent study revealed people who had the most catch-up sleep on the weekends had a 20% lower risk of developing heart disease compared with those with the least weekend catch-up sleep.¹

“The association becomes even more pronounced among individuals who regularly experience inadequate sleep on weekdays,” said study co-author Yanjun Song, from Fuwai Hospital in China, in a press release.

Many people go through their work or school days sleep-deprived and spend their weekends catching up on sleep. Although catching up to sleep is to mitigate the effects of sleep deprivation, which may affect judgment, focus, reactions, learning, and mood, not a lot of research has been done on whether compensatory sleep helps cardiovascular health.²

This new prospective cohort study, presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2024 on August 29, 2024, in London, sought to investigate the effects compensatory sleep has on the risk for heart diseases, including ischemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, and stroke.³ The team wanted to answer the question, “Can weekend compensatory sleep provide health benefits?”

Investigators leveraged data from the UK Biobank study and included 90,903 participants.¹ Participants had a mean age of 55.9 years, and 42.3% were male.

Participants had their sleep data recorded using an AX3 accelerometer and were divided into quartiles ranging from having the least compensated sleep (quartile 1) to the most compensated sleep (quartile 4). Participants in quartile 1 (n = 22,475) received -16.05 hours to -0.26 hours of compensated sleep, quartile 2 (n = 22,901) had -0.26 to +0.45 hours, quartile 3 (n = 22,692) had +0.45 to +1.28 hours, and Q4 (n = 22,695) had 1.28 to 16.06 hours.

Sleep deprivation was defined as self-reporting < 7 hours of sleep per night. In total, 21.8% (n = 19,816) of participants were sleep-deprived. The rest of the participants experienced occasional inadequate sleep, but their average daily hours of sleep did not meet the criteria for sleep deprivation.

Investigators used hospitalization records and cause of death registry information to diagnose several cardiac diseases, such as ischemic heart disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and stroke.

Participants had a mean follow-up of nearly 14 years. Investigators discovered participants with the most compensatory sleep were 19% less likely to develop heart disease than those with the least compensatory sleep. However, among participants with daily sleep deprivation, those with the most compensatory sleep had a 20% lower risk of developing heart disease compared to those with the least. The team did not observe any differences between men and women.

“Our results show that for the significant proportion of the population in modern society that suffers from sleep deprivation, those who have the most ‘catch-up’ sleep at weekends have significantly lower rates of heart disease than those with the least,” said co-author Zechen Liu, also from Fuwai Hospital.

References

1. ^{Song, Y and Liu, Z. Catching Up on Sleep on Weekends May Lower Heart Disease Risk by Up To 20%. Presented at ESC Congress 2024 on August 29, 2024, in London.}
2. ^{What are Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency? National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep-deprivation#:~:text=Sleep%20deficiency%20can%20interfere%20with,or%20worried%20in%20social%20situations. Accessed August 29, 2024.}
3. ^{Song, Y. Weekend Compensatory Sleep and Heart Diseases. Presented at ESC Congress 2024 on August 29, 2024, in London.}