From: The Washington Post
What Doctors Want You to Know About ‘Catch-Up’ Sleep
You’ve spent Monday through Friday running on five hours of sleep, working late nights and waking up early just to do it all over again. On Saturday, you get 12 glorious hours of shut-eye and feel instantly refreshed when you wake up. You’re all caught up on your sleep, right?
Actually, not quite. The idea that a single morning or weekend spent logging extra hours in bed can wipe away a week’s worth of sleep deprivation is one of the most persistent sleep myths out there.
Here’s what sleep experts wish everyone understood about how “catch-up” sleep actually works and why your z’s can’t just be topped off like a gas tank.
Sleep debt is essentially the difference between how much sleep your body needs and how much it gets, according to Kimberly Fenn, professor of cognition and cognitive neuroscience at Michigan State University. Put another way, it is the cumulative amount of lost sleep an individual has experienced.
Read the whole story (subscription may be required): The Washington Post
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