After a long hard week in the office and many sleepless nights, many people think that a long lie in on a Saturday will help rejuvenate our worn out bodies.
Scientists, however, have said that having a catch up on your sleep that you loose during the week can often be a pointless task.
Restricted sleep – four hours or less per night – has been found to be cumulative and that little sleep each night is almost as bad for the body as having no sleep at all.
Even if it is just a couple of nights a week can completely affect how the mind works and one single night sleep will not immediately reverse this.
Lead researcher Dr Chiara Cirelli from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said, “There is a huge amount of interest in sleep restriction in the field today.
“Instead of going to bed when they are tired, like they should, people watch TV and want to have an active social life.
“People count on catching up on their sleep on the weekends, but it may not be enough. Even relatively mild sleep restriction for several nights can affect an individuals ability to perform cognitive tasks.
“For instance, recent studies in humans have shown that five days with only four hours of sleep each night result in cumulative deficits in vigilance and cognition, and these deficits do not fully recover after one night of sleep, even if ten hours in bed are allowed.”
Insomnia can also increase the bodies resistance to insulin and further lead to diabetes.
Dr Cirelli’s team studies how sleep deprivation on rats and recorded their slow wave activity (SWA) while they were asleep and awake. SWA indicates when an individual needs to sleep because the longer someone stays awak the higher the level of SWA.
Dr Cirelli explained, “Monitoring SWA levels during waking time is very important in understanding the whole picture.
“High SWA levels during periods of both sleeping and waking signal that you need to go to sleep.”
The research is expected to help scientists understand the harmful effects of sleep disturbance.
If you are looking for comfy bedding to keep you in the perfect slumber each night then visit online bedding store Duvet and Pillow Warehouse. From goose down quilts to memory foam pillows, there is something for everyone to ensure that you get the best sleep right through the night.
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