The researchers, a collaboration of scientists based in Boston,
Massachusetts, and the Republic of Korea, sought to determine if what
they refer to as “catch-up sleep” impacts body mass index (BMI) in the
general population. To do so, they conducted face-to-face interviews of a
random sampling of 2,156 adults, comparing their sleep habits with
their BMI scores. The 932 participants who slept in—”catch-up sleepers”
(people who sleep longer on the weekend than on weekdays by
approximately two hours) had a significantly lower BMI than the other
subjects. What’s more, every additional hour of catch-up sleep was
associated with a decrease in BMI.
As to why sleeping in on weekends can lead to weight loss, one of the
study co-authors, Robert Thomas, MD, MMSc, of the Division of
Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine at
the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, reminded Reader’s Digest of
the “substantial experimental and epidemiological data that short sleep
contributes to weight gain.” He notes, “our best estimate [as
researchers] is that there is a balance to be kept, and the body can
adjust and adapt within reason. Catch-up sleep allows the basic balance
to be maintained.”
Accordingly, Dr. Thomas suspects that intermittent catch-ups during
the week would have the same effect. However, as he points out, the
reality is that most of us don’t have time for cat-naps mid-week and are
left to catch up on sleep over the weekend.
[post_ads]Although the study showed significant differences in BMI with the
addition of two or more hours of catch-up sleep, Dr. Thomas points out
that there are “substantial individual differences,” such that the
benefit we get from those extra hours will vary depending on how much
sleep each of us generally needs. “To determine your optimal sleep, you
can track the time spent sleeping on nights when there is no need to
wake up to an alarm,” suggests Liza Baker, a health coach at Simply Health Coaching.
That tells you about how many hours of sleep your body likes to get,
since it varies greatly across the population, from just 4 to 5 hours to
9 to 10 hours. (Most adults fall in the 6- to 8-hour range.)
So can you actually lose weight by sleeping
in on the weekend? Only if you’re paying off a sleep debt from the
week, according to the results of this study. It helps if you’re also
eating less, Dr. Thomas adds.
If you’re looking to get more sleep, you might want to try some of these sleep tricks on for size, and be aware that there are jobs that are bad for sleep.
