Sleeping in on weekends may lower blood pressure risk, study finds

Catching up on lost sleep over the weekend may actually benefit your health, new research suggests. Sleeping about an hour and a half longer on weekends than on weekdays was found to be the most effective way to reduce the risk of high blood pressure.

The Guardian recently spotlighted research by a Korean team led by Dr. Lee Na-won of Korea University, which analyzed the relationship between sleep duration and hypertension using seven years of data from 40,000 Korean adults. The team found that making up for lost sleep on weekends was associated with a 6 percent lower likelihood of developing high blood pressure on average.

Sleep deprivation is known to interfere with the natural nighttime drop in blood pressure, raising the risk of hypertension.

The team defined the difference between weekend and weekday sleep duration as "weekend catch-up sleep." Sleeping an extra one hour and 27 minutes on weekends compared to weekdays emerged as the optimal point in the analysis, with those doing so showing a 9 percent lower likelihood of having high blood pressure. Among people who were physically inactive, those who got weekend catch-up sleep were 6.9 percent less likely to have high blood pressure.

The findings were presented at the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology, held in Munich, Germany.

Sleep experts have long warned that sleeping in heavily on weekends can disrupt the body's circadian rhythm and harm overall health. There is still broad consensus that maintaining regular bedtimes and wake times is most important, but recent research suggests that a moderate amount of catch-up sleep — around one to two hours — may actually have a positive effect on cardiovascular health.

"When you don't get enough sleep, your body is under additional stress, and your heart and blood vessels have to work harder, which can raise blood pressure," Lee said. "Sleeping a little longer on weekends can give your body a chance to recover and reduce that stress."

"If you haven't slept enough during the week, there's no need to feel lazy or guilty about sleeping in a little on the weekend," Lee said, adding that sleeping in for too long could backfire. "If the catch-up sleep period becomes excessively long, the irregularity in your sleep schedule and the disruption to your circadian rhythm can grow to the point where the benefits are offset," she said.

Sonya Babu-Narayan, a cardiologist and associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, echoed the sentiment. "Many people can't get enough sleep on weekdays because of work, family and social commitments. It's natural to want to catch up by sleeping in on weekends," she said. "At the very least, people probably don't need to feel guilty about sleeping in a little on the weekend."

However, the researchers warned that sleeping in excessively could have the opposite effect. According to the team, people who slept more than four hours longer on weekends than on weekdays actually showed a higher risk of high blood pressure.

"If the catch-up sleep period becomes excessively long, the irregularity in your sleep schedule and the disruption to your circadian rhythm can grow to the point where the benefits are offset," Lee said.