Weekend lie-ins can prevent a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke, according to a new study.
Catching up on sleep on Saturday or Sunday may “significantly” lower heart disease risk by up to 20%, say scientists.
The demands of the working week, often influenced by school schedules, can lead to sleep disruption or deprivation.
But new research shows that people who “catch up” on their sleep by having a lie-in in at weekends may see their risk of heart disease fall by up to a fifth.
Study co-author Yanjun Song, of the State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease in Beijing, China, said: “Sufficient compensatory sleep is linked to a lower risk of heart disease.
“The association becomes even more pronounced among individuals who regularly experience inadequate sleep on weekdays.”
Despite having a lie-in on days off to catch up on sleep being a common habit, there has been little previous research to investigate if such compensatory sleep helps heart health.
The Chinese team used data from 90,903 people involved in the UK Biobank project.
To evaluate the relationship between compensated weekend sleep and heart disease, sleep data was recorded using accelerometers for an average of around 14 years.
Participants who reported having less than seven hours of sleep per night were defined as having sleep deprivation. A total of 19,816 participants (21.8%) of were defined as sleep-deprived.
The rest of the group may have experienced occasional inadequate sleep, but on average, their daily hours of sleep did not meet the criteria for sleep deprivation.
Hospitalization records and cause of death registry information were used to diagnose cardiac diseases including ischaemic heart disease (IHD), heart failure (HF), atrial fibrillation (AF), and stroke.
The findings showed that participants in the group with the most compensatory sleep – over 75 minutes – were 19% less likely to develop heart disease than those with the least.
In the subgroup of patients with daily sleep deprivation, those with the most compensatory sleep had a 20% lower risk of developing heart disease than those with the least.
The analysis did not show any differences between men and women.
Co-author Zechen Liu, also of State Key Laboratory, added: “Our results show that for the significant proportion of the population in modern society that suffers from sleep deprivation, those who have the most ‘catch-up’ sleep at weekends have significantly lower rates of heart disease than those with the least.”
The findings are due to be presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in London.
Produced in association with SWNS Talker
