
Sleeping in on the weekends might prevent an early death - etrevino
https://mashable.com/2018/05/23/sleep-weekends-early-death/#eTTpmmTIfsqp
======
Toine
Better title : "Catching up on your week sleep deprivation in the weekend : it
might just help you avoid dying prematurely"

Don't mess up your sleep schedule on weekends if you already sleep 7/8h in the
week. The study was done on people sleeping less than 5 hours. Title is a bit
misleading in that sense.

~~~
bartread
Whilst I think the conventional wisdom that getting enough sleep consistently
throughout the week is the best way to go makes sense, I've known for years
that catching up on the weekends for lost sleep during the week makes me feel
a whole lot better.

For me it all started when I moved from a job where I could roll in whenever I
wanted, and thus got a consistent 8 or so hours of sleep every night, to a
situation where I had to be in at 8.30 - 9AM consistently - which, btw, is a
real pain in the ass if you're a night owl.

Sadly I have largely lost my night owl capabilities due to a few years of
having to be at work at a set time, but I still "catch up" at the weekends,
and it's definitely better than _not_ catching up by a _very_ wide margin, and
it keeps me a functional non-homicidal human being.

~~~
dTal
What would you describe as "night owl capabilities" that you have lost, as
opposed to merely adjusting your sleep schedule? Is there a downside to up
early / bed early?

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arca_vorago
I think modern society is in a sleep deprivation epidemic that needs to be
addressed, and just weekends isn't going to cut it.

~~~
JTbane
Agreed. I work 8 hours every weekday with an hour train ride- not much time to
sleep after eating and leisure are accounted for.

~~~
Moru
Something has to go if you don't have time to sleep. That is the most
important thing you do, you can't function or stay sane without sleep. I'm not
kidding. Priority should be something like 1. Sleep, 2. Drink and eat, 3.
Work, 4. Leisure.

If you have to, use the train ride to sleep. That is two hours per day of
sleep if you can fall asleep fast.

~~~
paulirwin
Don't forget exercise, which is great for your sleep hygiene.

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bb88
I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting tired of these articles. Maybe
I'm cranky today from lack of sleep (except I had 9 hours last night).

Here's an article that says that over sleeping shortens lifespans:

[https://www.allure.com/story/oversleeping-shortens-
lifespan](https://www.allure.com/story/oversleeping-shortens-lifespan)

Or human longevity is related to regular sleeping cycles:

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4067693/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4067693/)

Or why you should stop sleeping in on the weekends:

[http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/sleeping-
weeke...](http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/sleeping-weekends-may-
give-you-social-jet-lag/)

Did you know that more than 8 hours of sleep is bad for you?

[https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/7333.php](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/7333.php)

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weavie
Waking up on a Sunday morning, realise you don't have to get up, roll over and
go back to sleep. One of lifes pleasures.

~~~
manmal
I'm looking forward to the day my kids don't wake me up at 7, every day. (They
are 5 and 2)

~~~
commandlinefan
I almost don't have the heart to tell you but... by the time they get old
enough to start sleeping in, you'll be too old to. After about 40, you'll wake
up on Saturday thinking, "oh my gosh, it must be nearly noon!" and realize
it's only 8:30 and you're wide awake.

~~~
rsync
"After about 40, you'll wake up on Saturday thinking, "oh my gosh, it must be
nearly noon!" and realize it's only 8:30 and you're wide awake."

Good news: if you maintain your exercise regimen - especially your
resistance/weight training - you can maintain the ability to sleep 8 or 9 or
10 hours in a night.

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nlavezzo
Now, how to explain this to my 3 year old...

Man, I wish sleeping in was still an option.

~~~
commandlinefan
So having children leads to an early death? Sounds about right...

~~~
vhost-
Glad I snipped that in the bud

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kleiba
Sleeping in on the weekends might also _cause_ an early death if you're
married to my wife who wants to go on a shopping spree on Saturdays...

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daphneokeefe
From the article: "There were limitations to the study, such as the
participants only being asked about their sleeping habits only once, making it
impossible to detect changes in their sleep habits over time."

Asking them one time about their behavior over many years? I wouldn't place
much credence in the study's reported results then.

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kbar13
less than 5 hours a day? sleeping more than 5 hours a day does not count as
"sleeping in".

also

> For those who only manage to get less than five hours of shut eye throughout
> the week, but then have a longer snooze on the weekends, there was no
> heightened mortality risk.

this is just clickbait

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riku_iki
And they define it as a sleeping for more than 5 hours:

"people under the age of 65 who get less than five hours sleep on the weekend
had an increased risk of death"

~~~
jcims
The safest part of the day for most people is likely the time they spend
asleep in bed. If the baseline is 16hrs of consciousness, an extra 2hrs of it
every day presents a ~12% increase in opportunities to off yourself
accidentally. That's exacerbated by the side effects of loss of sleep of
course, but there's a fundamental there that you're not likely to erase.

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olivermarks
[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsr.12712](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsr.12712)

Summary of the paper this mashable post is based around

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Clubber
I avoid stuff like this. A few months ago, I read a similar article stating
that trying to catch up on sleep during the weekend doesn't work. If you
wonder why people are so skeptical of science, it's stuff like this.

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sakopov
Highly recommend this [1] podcast to understand what sleep actually does and
how sleep deprived our modern society is.

[1] [https://youtu.be/pwaWilO_Pig](https://youtu.be/pwaWilO_Pig)

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pietroglyph
Sleeping in on the weekend can also be a symptom of being rich, which might
also prevent early death.

