Chronic Sleep Deprivation: The Difficulty of Paying Off a Sleep Debt
Chronic sleep deprivation is a widespread issue among Americans, with many struggling to get the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep per night. However, the notion that one can simply “pay off” a sleep debt by sleeping late on weekends is not as straightforward as it may seem.
The Lingering Effects of Poor Sleep
Studies conducted over the years have shown that it can take a week or more for the cognitive and physiological consequences of poor sleep to wear off, even after increasing sleep duration. In a 2003 study at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, scientists examined the cognitive effects of a week of poor sleep, followed by three days of sleeping at least eight hours a night. They found that the “recovery” sleep did not fully reverse declines in performance on tests of reaction times and other psychomotor tasks, especially for subjects who had been forced to sleep only three or five hours a night.
Similarly, a 2008 study at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found that when subjects slept four hours a night over five days and then “recovered” with eight hours a night over the following week, they still showed slight residual cognitive impairments a week later, even though they reported no sleepiness.
The Importance of “Sleep Banking”
However, not all studies have found the same lingering effects. In another study at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, scientists found that people recovered much more quickly from a week of poor sleep when it was preceded by a “banking” week that included nights with 10 hours of shuteye. This suggests that if you know you have a week of little sleep ahead of you, it may be more effective to load up on sleep beforehand, rather than simply trying to catch up afterward.
Conclusion
The research referenced indicates that paying off a sleep debt is not as simple as sleeping late on weekends. The cognitive and physiological consequences of chronic sleep deprivation can take a week or more to fully wear off, even after increasing sleep duration. To mitigate the effects of a sleep-deprived week, it may be more effective to “bank” extra sleep beforehand, rather than relying solely on recovery sleep afterward.