The answer, according to this article in Scientific American, is yes, but only if you are willing to commit to recovering all (and more) of the sleep you've already lost. While this may sound simple and straight-forward, it goes against how many of us operate since we could no longer fit naps into our schedules.
You know how it goes: You stay up to watch "The Hills" marathon... I mean, finish a work project and pack up kid's lunches and the next thing you know, it's an hour (or two or three) past your bedtime. When you're groggy the next day, you swear you will hit the sack a bit earlier to catch up on the sleep LC stole from you the night before. Even if you follow through and feel much better a day later, you still have probably not completely made up all those lost hours.
"It's a deficit that grows every time we skim some extra minutes off our nightly slumber," the article says. That means we need to make up for the lost minutes as well as hours, and isn't attainable in one nap or night one night. Rather, we need to add an hour of sleep to each night. we've repaid the debt
More dire and long-standing sleep loss calls for more serious slumber. The experts say that if we are chronically sleep-deprived -- and we all know this can happen quickly when a baby is born or a schedule changes or a work deadline needs our attention we can only give in the late-night hours -- we need much more than a weekend to feel refreshed and get back to a healthier sleep schedule. Instead, we need to create a sleep recovery program for ourselves that we stretch out over a few months.
This week, I've launched my own mission to be a healthier sleeper. Now I understand why I'm not yet feeling the effects of all the extra rest I am getting and how much a commitment it's going to require to get to a well-rested place in my life. Here are a few key points from the article to consider as you catch up on your own sleep:
* Think you no longer require a full night's sleep? You're fooling yourself. A 2003 study showed that the less sleep we get, the less tired our bodies feel. That doesn't mean, however, we need fewer hours.
* Scientists believe that our sleep patterns are genetically influenced. Some us need six hours of sleep while others need ten, which is why eight hours of rest is recommended across the board. Most Americans log 6.8 hours on weekdays and another half an hour on the weekends.
* Short-term sleep deprivation can cause irritability (I know, no duh), impaired vision and memory lapses. Over the long term, however, sleep debt is linked to heart disease, obesity and insulin resistance. Yikes.
* The equation of sleep recovery is simple. Deep sleep not only helps your body rest, it is a period of restoration for your brain. The more time you spend sleeping deeply, the more opportunity your brain has to recharge.
* The best recovery program involves going to bed when you feel tired and ditching the alarm clock so you wake when your body's ready. Since following your natural sleep rhythms isn't easy or even realistic for most of us, heading to bed at the first yawn seems like the next best thing (at least until the weekend).
Have you tried to catch up on your sleep lately?
What helps you move from sleep debt to getting your rest in the black?
Read scintillating stuff on snoozing:
[photo credit: Getty Images]
