Sleeping Longer on Weekends Could Benefit Heart Health, Researchers Say.

Sleeping for an extra hour or two at the weekend may benefit heart health by reducing the risk of high blood pressure, according to a new study.

Researchers found that people who used weekends to recover from insufficient sleep during the working week had a lower prevalence of hypertension, although the benefit was strongest when the additional sleep was moderate.

The findings were presented on Sunday at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual congress in Munich, Germany. The study analysed data from 40,727 adults in South Korea who participated in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2016 and 2023.

Researchers compared participants’ weekend sleep with the amount of sleep they received during weekdays.

The study found that weekend catch-up sleep was associated with a 6 percent lower likelihood of high blood pressure. The reduction was slightly greater among physically inactive people, at 6.9 percent.

Researchers identified about one hour and 37 minutes of additional weekend sleep as the optimal amount, with people achieving this amount showing a 9 percent lower likelihood of hypertension.

However, the researchers cautioned against excessive weekend sleeping, saying that very large differences between weekday and weekend sleep could disrupt the body’s circadian rhythm and potentially reduce the benefits.

Nawon Lee of Korea University in Seoul, one of the study’s authors, said insufficient sleep can place additional stress on the body, forcing the heart and blood vessels to work harder and potentially increasing blood pressure.

She said people who fail to get enough sleep during the week should not feel guilty about sleeping longer at weekends, as it may help the body recover from accumulated sleep loss.

Previous research

The latest findings add to previous research suggesting that weekend catch-up sleep may have cardiovascular benefits.

At the 2024 European Society of Cardiology congress in London, researchers presented a study involving more than 90,000 people. It found that participants who got the most additional sleep at weekends had about a 20 percent lower risk of developing heart disease than those who got the least.

Medical research has long linked adequate sleep with better cardiovascular health. Experts generally recommend that adults get between seven and nine hours of sleep each night.

At the same time, scientists have warned that irregular sleep schedules can interfere with the circadian rhythm, the body’s internal clock that regulates sleep, hormone production and other biological functions.

A 2019 study involving 36 adults found that people whose sleep was restricted during the week and who were allowed to catch up at weekends experienced some improvements while they were sleeping more. However, those benefits disappeared after they returned to shorter sleep schedules.

The researchers said the findings suggest that while occasional weekend catch-up sleep may offer some benefits, consistently getting enough sleep throughout the week remains important.

The latest South Korean study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.