One of several studies looking at the longer-term impacts of sleep disruption.
This study specifically explored at the restorative role of weekend recovery sleep on metabolic factors, following insufficient sleep over a standard 5-day workweek.
Some key findings were that:
· Sleep loss increased after-dinner energy intake and reduced insulin sensitivity
· An additional 1.1 hr of recovery sleep over the weekend couldn’t prevent weight gain
· Whole-body insulin sensitivity also decreased ~13% during the sleep restriction period
· The circadian phase was delayed during recurrent insufficient sleep through the week
· Despite the additional weekend sleep time, metabolic indices worsened again after the weekend when sleep restriction recommenced
In discussing the findings, they note that while sleeping-in on the weekend is a common self-selected strategy to recover from sleep loss during a work week, these findings “suggest that weekend recovery sleep is not an effective strategy to prevent metabolic dysregulation associated with recurrent insufficient”.
Moreover, the benefits of weekend recovery sleep are “are transient” (e.g. the bad effects come back in force after the weekend) and the data “identify lower hepatic and muscle insulin sensitivity and delayed circadian timing as potential negative consequences associated with weekend recovery sleep followed by recurrent insufficient sleep”.
Link to the full open access paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.01.069
Link to the LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_ad-libitum-weekend-recovery-sleep-fails-to-activity-7031753846750134273-3r3a?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
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