7 ms·

Sleeping in on the weekends might prevent an early death

92 points by etrevino 8y ago

weavie 8y ago
Waking up on a Sunday morning, realise you don't have to get up, roll over and go back to sleep. One of lifes pleasures.
- manmal 8y ago
  I'm looking forward to the day my kids don't wake me up at 7, every day. (They are 5 and 2)
  - TsomArp 8y ago
    So do I... they are 5 and 6...
    - strictnein 8y ago
      9 and 6 here. I'm at a point that I can feed them and get them placated (electronics, cartoons, whatever) and go back to sleep for another hour or two on the weekends. So I guess that's a mild improvement. School days they, of course, refuse to get out of bed.
      - cosmie 8y ago
        My 6 year old is a morning person and I am not. She puts on Katie Perry via the Amazon Echo, tidies up and lets the dog out so those excuses don't exist for me to get out of bed, then she goes and crafts/draws/watches a show for a couple hours and enjoys her alone time while I slowly wake up. Unless we have something planned to go do, she gets really irritated if I get out of bed before 9 o'clock and disrupt her morning alone time. She started doing it on her own when she was 4, but it really started to mesh when I realized what she was doing and set it up for her to eat breakfast without my help (set out a cup and bowl/plate, put juice/milk into a smaller container and move it to the bottom shelf of the fridge, set out muffins or cereal or whatever she's into at the time, etc). She also sleeps like a rock, so my night-owl habits don't wake her. It's an absolutely amazing routine and I'm terrified of when she grows out of it.
  - tonyedgecombe 8y ago
    Don't worry, pretty soon you will be trying to wake them up every morning.
  - commandlinefan 8y ago
    I almost don't have the heart to tell you but... by the time they get old enough to start sleeping in, you'll be too old to. After about 40, you'll wake up on Saturday thinking, "oh my gosh, it must be nearly noon!" and realize it's only 8:30 and you're wide awake.
    - gtaylor 8y ago
      Sleeping in until 8:30 sounds amazing. Much better than the current 6:00 my toddler prefers.
    - rsync 8y ago
      "After about 40, you'll wake up on Saturday thinking, "oh my gosh, it must be nearly noon!" and realize it's only 8:30 and you're wide awake." Good news: if you maintain your exercise regimen - especially your resistance/weight training - you can maintain the ability to sleep 8 or 9 or 10 hours in a night.
  - skolos 8y ago
    Since we got kids we had a system with my wife: Saturdays I sleep in, Sundays she does. It really kept us sane.
    - kaizendad 8y ago
      My wife and I have the same process, and it's worth its weight in... well, processes have no inherent weight, but, anyway, it's amazing. Highly-recommended. Also gives the awake parent some valuable quality time with the kids, build some traditions unique to that one set of relationships.
      - senectus1 8y ago
        I get top sleep in till 8 both days, after that its all systems go. the wife doesn't sleep heavily so she wakes earlier and just leaves me alone :-P
- dingaling 8y ago
  Maybe it's just me but I can't stand 'wasting' weekend hours in bed. It's my only real personal time, I want to maximise it.
nlavezzo 8y ago
Now, how to explain this to my 3 year old... Man, I wish sleeping in was still an option.
- commandlinefan 8y ago
  So having children leads to an early death? Sounds about right...
  - vhost- 8y ago
    Glad I snipped that in the bud
  - babygoat 8y ago
    Having young children that never grow up, sure. Try to avoid that.
- LanceH 8y ago
  On the weekend if my first woke me up, we would start doing chores. He learned very quickly to fix his own breakfast and play quietly (yes, around 3 years of age).
  - astura 8y ago
    Exactly! Except, for me, when I was growing up if I woke up my parents for any reason other than a house fire or medical emergency (even accidentally) I'd be severely punished, not just ignored. So my siblings and I played quietly by ourselves most weekend mornings when we were very young.
Toine 8y ago
Better title : "Catching up on your week sleep deprivation in the weekend : it might just help you avoid dying prematurely" Don't mess up your sleep schedule on weekends if you already sleep 7/8h in the week. The study was done on people sleeping less than 5 hours. Title is a bit misleading in that sense.
- wenc 8y ago
  Also it is generally better to have a consistent sleep schedule, because circadian rhythms and routine. Good sleep habits are highly correlated with health. As I get older, it is increasingly difficult to maintain the 4 hr weekday sleep and then crash on weekends. The body can no longer tolerate this type of variation.
- fauigerzigerk 8y ago
  >Don't mess up your sleep schedule on weekends if you already sleep 7/8h in the week. I doubt that's even possible for most people. [Edit] I mean it's very difficult to sleep even longer on some days if you're not sleep deprived in the first place.
- bartread 8y ago
  Whilst I think the conventional wisdom that getting enough sleep consistently throughout the week is the best way to go makes sense, I've known for years that catching up on the weekends for lost sleep during the week makes me feel a whole lot better. For me it all started when I moved from a job where I could roll in whenever I wanted, and thus got a consistent 8 or so hours of sleep every night, to a situation where I had to be in at 8.30 - 9AM consistently - which, btw, is a real pain in the ass if you're a night owl. Sadly I have largely lost my night owl capabilities due to a few years of having to be at work at a set time, but I still "catch up" at the weekends, and it's definitely better than not catching up by a very wide margin, and it keeps me a functional non-homicidal human being.
  - dTal 8y ago
    What would you describe as "night owl capabilities" that you have lost, as opposed to merely adjusting your sleep schedule? Is there a downside to up early / bed early?
riku_iki 8y ago
And they define it as a sleeping for more than 5 hours: "people under the age of 65 who get less than five hours sleep on the weekend had an increased risk of death"
- jcims 8y ago
  The safest part of the day for most people is likely the time they spend asleep in bed. If the baseline is 16hrs of consciousness, an extra 2hrs of it every day presents a ~12% increase in opportunities to off yourself accidentally. That's exacerbated by the side effects of loss of sleep of course, but there's a fundamental there that you're not likely to erase.
arca_vorago 8y ago
I think modern society is in a sleep deprivation epidemic that needs to be addressed, and just weekends isn't going to cut it.
- JTbane 8y ago
  Agreed. I work 8 hours every weekday with an hour train ride- not much time to sleep after eating and leisure are accounted for.
  - Moru 8y ago
    Something has to go if you don't have time to sleep. That is the most important thing you do, you can't function or stay sane without sleep. I'm not kidding. Priority should be something like 1. Sleep, 2. Drink and eat, 3. Work, 4. Leisure. If you have to, use the train ride to sleep. That is two hours per day of sleep if you can fall asleep fast.
    - triviatise 8y ago
      sleep is not equal and small portions of sleep dont add up to one long session.
    - paulirwin 8y ago
      Don't forget exercise, which is great for your sleep hygiene.
daphneokeefe 8y ago
From the article: "There were limitations to the study, such as the participants only being asked about their sleeping habits only once, making it impossible to detect changes in their sleep habits over time." Asking them one time about their behavior over many years? I wouldn't place much credence in the study's reported results then.
olivermarks 8y ago
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsr.12712 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsr.12712 Summary of the paper this mashable post is based around
kbar13 8y ago
less than 5 hours a day? sleeping more than 5 hours a day does not count as "sleeping in". also > For those who only manage to get less than five hours of shut eye throughout the week, but then have a longer snooze on the weekends, there was no heightened mortality risk. this is just clickbait
Clubber 8y ago
I avoid stuff like this. A few months ago, I read a similar article stating that trying to catch up on sleep during the weekend doesn't work. If you wonder why people are so skeptical of science, it's stuff like this.
sakopov 8y ago
Highly recommend this [1] podcast to understand what sleep actually does and how sleep deprived our modern society is. [1] https://youtu.be/pwaWilO_Pig https://youtu.be/pwaWilO_Pig
kleiba 8y ago
Sleeping in on the weekends might also cause an early death if you're married to my wife who wants to go on a shopping spree on Saturdays...
pietroglyph 8y ago
Sleeping in on the weekend can also be a symptom of being rich, which might also prevent early death.
bb88 8y ago
I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting tired of these articles. Maybe I'm cranky today from lack of sleep (except I had 9 hours last night). Here's an article that says that over sleeping shortens lifespans: https://www.allure.com/story/oversleeping-shortens-lifespan https://www.allure.com/story/oversleeping-shortens-lifespan Or human longevity is related to regular sleeping cycles: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4067693/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4067693/ Or why you should stop sleeping in on the weekends: http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/sleeping-weekends-may-give-you-social-jet-lag/ http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/sleeping-weeke... Did you know that more than 8 hours of sleep is bad for you? https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/7333.php https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/7333.php

92 points by etrevino 8y ago

Waking up on a Sunday morning, realise you don't have to get up, roll over and go back to sleep. One of lifes pleasures.

manmal 8y ago
I'm looking forward to the day my kids don't wake me up at 7, every day. (They are 5 and 2)
- TsomArp 8y ago
  So do I... they are 5 and 6...
  - strictnein 8y ago
    9 and 6 here. I'm at a point that I can feed them and get them placated (electronics, cartoons, whatever) and go back to sleep for another hour or two on the weekends. So I guess that's a mild improvement. School days they, of course, refuse to get out of bed.
    - cosmie 8y ago
      My 6 year old is a morning person and I am not. She puts on Katie Perry via the Amazon Echo, tidies up and lets the dog out so those excuses don't exist for me to get out of bed, then she goes and crafts/draws/watches a show for a couple hours and enjoys her alone time while I slowly wake up. Unless we have something planned to go do, she gets really irritated if I get out of bed before 9 o'clock and disrupt her morning alone time. She started doing it on her own when she was 4, but it really started to mesh when I realized what she was doing and set it up for her to eat breakfast without my help (set out a cup and bowl/plate, put juice/milk into a smaller container and move it to the bottom shelf of the fridge, set out muffins or cereal or whatever she's into at the time, etc). She also sleeps like a rock, so my night-owl habits don't wake her. It's an absolutely amazing routine and I'm terrified of when she grows out of it.
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  Don't worry, pretty soon you will be trying to wake them up every morning.
- commandlinefan 8y ago
  I almost don't have the heart to tell you but... by the time they get old enough to start sleeping in, you'll be too old to. After about 40, you'll wake up on Saturday thinking, "oh my gosh, it must be nearly noon!" and realize it's only 8:30 and you're wide awake.
  - gtaylor 8y ago
    Sleeping in until 8:30 sounds amazing. Much better than the current 6:00 my toddler prefers.
  - rsync 8y ago
    "After about 40, you'll wake up on Saturday thinking, "oh my gosh, it must be nearly noon!" and realize it's only 8:30 and you're wide awake." Good news: if you maintain your exercise regimen - especially your resistance/weight training - you can maintain the ability to sleep 8 or 9 or 10 hours in a night.
- skolos 8y ago
  Since we got kids we had a system with my wife: Saturdays I sleep in, Sundays she does. It really kept us sane.
  - kaizendad 8y ago
    My wife and I have the same process, and it's worth its weight in... well, processes have no inherent weight, but, anyway, it's amazing. Highly-recommended. Also gives the awake parent some valuable quality time with the kids, build some traditions unique to that one set of relationships.
    - senectus1 8y ago
      I get top sleep in till 8 both days, after that its all systems go. the wife doesn't sleep heavily so she wakes earlier and just leaves me alone :-P
dingaling 8y ago
Maybe it's just me but I can't stand 'wasting' weekend hours in bed. It's my only real personal time, I want to maximise it.

nlavezzo 8y ago

Now, how to explain this to my 3 year old... Man, I wish sleeping in was still an option.

commandlinefan 8y ago
So having children leads to an early death? Sounds about right...
- vhost- 8y ago
  Glad I snipped that in the bud
- babygoat 8y ago
  Having young children that never grow up, sure. Try to avoid that.
LanceH 8y ago
On the weekend if my first woke me up, we would start doing chores. He learned very quickly to fix his own breakfast and play quietly (yes, around 3 years of age).
- astura 8y ago
  Exactly! Except, for me, when I was growing up if I woke up my parents for any reason other than a house fire or medical emergency (even accidentally) I'd be severely punished, not just ignored. So my siblings and I played quietly by ourselves most weekend mornings when we were very young.

Toine 8y ago

Better title : "Catching up on your week sleep deprivation in the weekend : it might just help you avoid dying prematurely" Don't mess up your sleep schedule on weekends if you already sleep 7/8h in the week. The study was done on people sleeping less than 5 hours. Title is a bit misleading in that sense.

wenc 8y ago
Also it is generally better to have a consistent sleep schedule, because circadian rhythms and routine. Good sleep habits are highly correlated with health. As I get older, it is increasingly difficult to maintain the 4 hr weekday sleep and then crash on weekends. The body can no longer tolerate this type of variation.
fauigerzigerk 8y ago
>Don't mess up your sleep schedule on weekends if you already sleep 7/8h in the week. I doubt that's even possible for most people. [Edit] I mean it's very difficult to sleep even longer on some days if you're not sleep deprived in the first place.
bartread 8y ago
Whilst I think the conventional wisdom that getting enough sleep consistently throughout the week is the best way to go makes sense, I've known for years that catching up on the weekends for lost sleep during the week makes me feel a whole lot better. For me it all started when I moved from a job where I could roll in whenever I wanted, and thus got a consistent 8 or so hours of sleep every night, to a situation where I had to be in at 8.30 - 9AM consistently - which, btw, is a real pain in the ass if you're a night owl. Sadly I have largely lost my night owl capabilities due to a few years of having to be at work at a set time, but I still "catch up" at the weekends, and it's definitely better than not catching up by a very wide margin, and it keeps me a functional non-homicidal human being.
- dTal 8y ago
  What would you describe as "night owl capabilities" that you have lost, as opposed to merely adjusting your sleep schedule? Is there a downside to up early / bed early?

riku_iki 8y ago

And they define it as a sleeping for more than 5 hours: "people under the age of 65 who get less than five hours sleep on the weekend had an increased risk of death"

jcims 8y ago
The safest part of the day for most people is likely the time they spend asleep in bed. If the baseline is 16hrs of consciousness, an extra 2hrs of it every day presents a ~12% increase in opportunities to off yourself accidentally. That's exacerbated by the side effects of loss of sleep of course, but there's a fundamental there that you're not likely to erase.

arca_vorago 8y ago

I think modern society is in a sleep deprivation epidemic that needs to be addressed, and just weekends isn't going to cut it.

JTbane 8y ago
Agreed. I work 8 hours every weekday with an hour train ride- not much time to sleep after eating and leisure are accounted for.
- Moru 8y ago
  Something has to go if you don't have time to sleep. That is the most important thing you do, you can't function or stay sane without sleep. I'm not kidding. Priority should be something like 1. Sleep, 2. Drink and eat, 3. Work, 4. Leisure. If you have to, use the train ride to sleep. That is two hours per day of sleep if you can fall asleep fast.
  - triviatise 8y ago
    sleep is not equal and small portions of sleep dont add up to one long session.
  - paulirwin 8y ago
    Don't forget exercise, which is great for your sleep hygiene.

daphneokeefe 8y ago

From the article: "There were limitations to the study, such as the participants only being asked about their sleeping habits only once, making it impossible to detect changes in their sleep habits over time." Asking them one time about their behavior over many years? I wouldn't place much credence in the study's reported results then.

olivermarks 8y ago

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsr.12712 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsr.12712 Summary of the paper this mashable post is based around

kbar13 8y ago

less than 5 hours a day? sleeping more than 5 hours a day does not count as "sleeping in". also > For those who only manage to get less than five hours of shut eye throughout the week, but then have a longer snooze on the weekends, there was no heightened mortality risk. this is just clickbait

Clubber 8y ago

I avoid stuff like this. A few months ago, I read a similar article stating that trying to catch up on sleep during the weekend doesn't work. If you wonder why people are so skeptical of science, it's stuff like this.

sakopov 8y ago

Highly recommend this [1] podcast to understand what sleep actually does and how sleep deprived our modern society is. [1] https://youtu.be/pwaWilO_Pig https://youtu.be/pwaWilO_Pig

kleiba 8y ago

Sleeping in on the weekends might also cause an early death if you're married to my wife who wants to go on a shopping spree on Saturdays...

pietroglyph 8y ago

Sleeping in on the weekend can also be a symptom of being rich, which might also prevent early death.

bb88 8y ago

I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting tired of these articles. Maybe I'm cranky today from lack of sleep (except I had 9 hours last night). Here's an article that says that over sleeping shortens lifespans: https://www.allure.com/story/oversleeping-shortens-lifespan https://www.allure.com/story/oversleeping-shortens-lifespan Or human longevity is related to regular sleeping cycles: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4067693/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4067693/ Or why you should stop sleeping in on the weekends: http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/sleeping-weekends-may-give-you-social-jet-lag/ http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/sleeping-weeke... Did you know that more than 8 hours of sleep is bad for you? https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/7333.php https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/7333.php