Sleeping Over the Weekend Can Lead to Weight Gain and Diabetes

Weekends for most of us are the perfect opportunity to catch up on sleep that we missed out on during the week.

Work has been frantic, friends have been celebrating birthdays, you had to wake up early to work out – and a result you didn’t get a decent night’s sleep all week. In most cases, we end up telling ourselves that we can catch up on sleep during the weekend.

A new study published by Current Biology, however, has revealed that catching up on sleep doesn’t work as well as you might think and actually puts you at risk of gaining weight.

The study showed that people who did not sleep enough during the week but caught extra hours on the weekend tended to snack more and have an increased risk of gaining weight and eventually developing diabetes.

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This research was carried out in a sleep laboratory where 36 healthy adults aged 18 to 39 were placed under observation.

They were divided into three groups: those who slept nine hours a night for nine consecutive days, those who had their sleep restricted to only five hours a night for nine nights, and those who slept no more than five hours a night for five days followed by a weekend when they could sleep as much as they liked, before returning to restricted sleep for two days.

After two weeks, participants from both sleep-deprived groups gained nearly three pounds and experienced metabolic disruption that would increase their risk for diabetes over the long term.

While weekend recovery sleep had some benefits after a single week of insufficient sleep, those gains were wiped out when people plunged right back into their same sleep-deprived schedule the next Monday.

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The recommended number of hours for sleep per night for adults is seven or more. Recent studies have also highlighted the importance of sleep quality, as interrupted sleep has been shown to cause a decrease in focus and attention, weakening of the immune systems and cognitive slowing.

A good night’s rest is just as important as all that happens during the day. An adequate amount of sleep allows the body to rest and recharge so we are ready to tackle the day. It can also reduce stress and help us lose weight.

The study suggests that people should prioritize sleep. This involves cutting out the optional “sleep stealers” such as watching television and spending time on electronic devices such as laptops, iPads, and phones just before bedtime.