The Hill: A new study published in Annals of Behavioral Medicine suggests that a few consecutive nights of sleep loss can lead to great deterioration of mental and physical well-being. One night of bad sleep leads to the biggest jump in symptoms, according to the study.
This means that pushing yourself during the week, then trying to recover sleep on the weekends may not actually be a good strategy for your health.
“Many of us think that we can pay our sleep debt on weekends and be more productive on weekdays,” said Soomi Lee, assistant professor in the School of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida and author of the paper, in a press release. “However, results from this study show that having just one night of sleep loss can significantly impair your daily functioning.”
To study this phenomenon, Lee analyzed data from the Midlife in the United States Study. Nearly 2,000 middle-aged adults participated by providing daily diary data for eight consecutive days. Lee then compared the sleep hours to daily well-being.
