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Weekend ‘catch-up sleep’ is a lie

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Weekend ‘catch-up sleep’ is a lie

#11

Post by SenHeng »

bgentry wrote: post #9
ferros wrote: post #8

I can’t speak for scientific analysis, but I can say that if I have had a disrupted week of sleep, a weekend catch up ‘resets’ me and serves its intended purpose (for me)

While it may feel this way, the science strongly indicates this is not the case. The study in the linked article is one proof point. Many others are summarized in Matthew Walker’s “Why We Sleep”.

It feels that way but only temporarily. When I keep repeating it not sleeping, my weekend is spent only sleeping and my weekday performance begins to drop, eventually I need to sleep in even on week days.

Only way I've managed to recover is to take an entire month off, sleep as much as I want for the first week (or two) and slowly try to shift back into an 8 hour cycle.

Re: Weekend ‘catch-up sleep’ is a lie

#12

Post by freddie_mercury »

ferros wrote: post #8

I can’t speak for scientific analysis, but I can say that if I have had a disrupted week of sleep, a weekend catch up ‘resets’ me and serves its intended purpose (for me)

To push back some, how do you see your statement as different from post-modernist ("subjectivism is all that matters") or anti-intellectualist ("I don't care what science has to say") arguments in other subjects?

Re: Weekend ‘catch-up sleep’ is a lie

#13

Post by freddie_mercury »

dasanman wrote: post #10
bgentry wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it may feel this way, the science strongly indicates this is not the case. The study in the linked article is one proof point. Many others are summarized in Matthew Walker’s “Why We Sleep”.

But if it "feels that way", doesnt that have something to say as well?

In the absence of any actual evidence? Generally we take self-reported feelings as not especially strong evidence.

Maybe all it says is they grew up thinking that "weekend sleeping helped catch-up" and now they only remember the confirming evidence and discard the disconfirming evidence to support their confirmation bias?

Re: Weekend ‘catch-up sleep’ is a lie

#16

Post by Golfkid2Gadfly »

No amount of sleep will make you feel well if your entire life is economically and, therefore, emotionally stressed because your country does not care about you. Provide affordable health care, affordable quality day care, living wages, and housing security, and people will sleep like babies all the time. America will be the richer.

Re: Weekend ‘catch-up sleep’ is a lie

#19

Post by listenallyall »

bgentry wrote: post #9
ferros wrote: post #8

I can’t speak for scientific analysis, but I can say that if I have had a disrupted week of sleep, a weekend catch up ‘resets’ me and serves its intended purpose (for me)

While it may feel this way, the science strongly indicates this is not the case. The study in the linked article is one proof point. Many others are summarized in Matthew Walker’s “Why We Sleep”.

His experience is perfectly in line with the results of the study:

> weekend recovery sleep had some benefits after a single week of insufficient sleep

Just like 'ferros' described, if you have a single occasional week of limited sleep, making it up on the weekends DOES have benefits. The problem starts when you repeatedly sleep an inadequate number of hours during the week.

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