Weekend catch-up sleep and lower body mass

What is it about?

We demonstrated that weekend sleep extension, sleeping more on weekend than workdays, is associated with lower body mass in a dose-dependent manner: the more the amount of weekend sleep extension, the lower the BMI. The results imply that weekend (free-day) sleep extension can be a population-level strategy to provide protection against weight gain related to sleep loss, for people who are inevitably sleep-deprived on weekdays or workdays

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Why is it important?

Short sleep is increasingly regarded as a risk of obesity. To avoid being obese, it is important to achieve sufficient amount of nocturnal sleep, as much as to stay on healthy diet and exercise regularly. However, in a modern society, habitual sleep restriction seems to be inevitable due to social obligations or work schedules, with a tendency to reduced sleep duration. To cope with sleep loss, people usually engage in daytime napping or extend nighttime sleep during weekends or other time periods free from social or work obligation. We demonstrated that weekend sleep extension, sleeping more on weekend than workdays, counteract the deleterious effects of sleep debt on body weight. This is the first study to suggest that weekend sleep extension in an applicable population-level strategy to cope with sleep loss in adult general population

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