It’s a scenario that everyone is familiar with. After a particularly crazy week trying to fit in your long work hours, your jogging schedule, and maybe keeping up your social life if you’re lucky, you’ve sacrificed on sleep.
But it’s no big deal, you think to yourself. You can just “catch up” on sleep this weekend.
Or can you?
Unfortunately, this kind of thinking is actually pretty useless. According to Janet Kennedy, Ph.D., a specialist in sleeping disorders, it could actually make things worse.
“Trying to make up all the hours actually distorts your body clock,” she told Women’s Health. “It makes you feel more sluggish and cranky and is more stressful for your body.
That stress builds up, and makes you screw up your sleep schedule even more later in the week. Making a habit of messing with your sleep schedule in general makes you nap or stay awake with caffeine, both of which confuse your body at bedtime.
But for many of us, a completely regulated sleep schedule just isn’t possible. So instead, we have to compromise.
Instead of sleeping in until the afternoon on weekends, wake up close to the same time, or within a few hours of when you’d normally wake up for work anyway. You may feel tired, since you’ve been up late all week, but it’s just what’s best.
“Sticking close to a regular pattern is really what’s best for your body, Kennedy told Women’s Health. “Your body typically can’t make up for your entire sleep debt, particularly if that debt is chronically large.”
And keep in mind that sleep is just as important as diet and exercise.
