Can You Make Up For Lost Sleep On Weekends?

How to Catch Up On Sleep Sleep is a precious commodity for most of us. Many don't get enough during the work week, so they try to make up for it during the weekends. Recent research shows that catching up on sleep won't undo the damage already done. It is common knowledge that being sleep-deprived is not good for someone's health, but a new study mimics how a lot of people live. For five days, volunteers were only allowed six hours of a sleep each night. Then for two days, they were allowed to sleep in, getting a solid 10 hours a night. During that time, researchers measured their stress and inflammation as well as performance levels and found that sleeping in doesn't really help. The study  shows that after being sleep-deprived for five days, and getting two days of "recovery" sleep, your performance does not improve back to baseline.  That cycle of getting up early, then sleeping in late, creates another problem of throwing off the body's internal clock. You may have recovered some of your sleep. But when you start on a Monday, you feel like you've got jetlag, because your biological clock is out of sync. It usually takes 2 or 3 days to get back into sync.  So, how do you fix a sleep deficit? It is a matter of rethinking sleep habits. Here are our tips:

1. Get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night.
2. Stick to a sleep schedule by going to sleep at the same time each night and waking up at the same time each morning. They say this schedule should be followed even on the weekends.
3. Reserve your bedroom for only sleep and intimacy. So, to have the television in the bedroom, to do your work in the bedroom, and maybe have your iPad and your cellphone, those things are disrupting to your sleep.
4. Make sure your bedroom is dark, cool and quiet so it can help bring about better relaxation. Wear moisture wicking pajamas and use temperature regulating bedding to help keep your core body temperature at the optimum sleep inducing level.