Catching up on missed sleep at the weekend may be beneficial for health, with an ideal amount of 1 hour and 27 minutes of extra sleep potentially protecting against high blood pressure, according to new analysis. This finding offers a caveat to long-standing advice that warned against lie-ins disrupting the body's internal clock and causing adverse health effects.
The study, presented at the European Society of Cardiology's annual congress, found that weekend catch-up sleep was associated with a 6% reduction in the odds of hypertension. For individuals considered physically inactive, this benefit was slightly greater, with a 6.9% lower likelihood of hypertension.
Dr. Nawon Lee of Korea University in Seoul, the study author, suggested that extra sleep on the weekend could allow the body to recover from stress caused by insufficient sleep during the week. However, Dr. Lee also cautioned that excessive catch-up sleep, defined as more than four hours extra, could increase the risk of hypertension.
While maintaining a regular sleep schedule remains important, experts suggest people may no longer need to feel guilty about moderate weekend lie-ins, especially if they have not had enough sleep during the week.