Sleep is indisputably important to a healthy lifestyle and finding the right amount of sleep for your own individual needs can be challenging.  Even with the best intentions, we all find that we lose sleep from time to time.  Is the phrase, “catch up on your sleep,” just a cliché, or can you actually make up for lost snooze time?

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The reality of catching up on sleep.

Sleep experts at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine agree that catching up on sleep is nothing more than a cliché.  Researchers at Harvard Medical School have found that attempting to catch up on a lack of sleep by sleeping more than usual over a short period of time can actually be more harmful  to your health.  Sleeping more to make up for lost sleep can even negatively impact your health and work performance.  Catching up on sleep during the weekends, for example, can wreak havoc on your natural circadian rhythms, making it more difficult to fall asleep at your standard bedtime.

Researchers at the University Colorado Boulder also found that those that attempt to catch up on sleep during weekends have an increased tendency to gain weight and are at higher risk of developing diabetes. It may be that any disruption to your normal sleep cycle disrupts hormones that control your appetite and reduces your ability to control your impulses when tempted with unhealthy foods.

If you can’t catch up on sleep, how can you recover from a bout of lost sleep?

The only healthy way to rebound from a recent lack of sleep is to resume your normal sleep schedule as soon as possible.  This means both going to bed at the same time and waking at the same time.  Maintaining a consistent sleep routine, even during weekends, is the most effective way of optimizing your quality of sleep and reducing the risk of sleep interference.

If you’re a fan of naps, you should try to nap for no more than twenty minutes and always before 3:00PM.  A longer nap or a nap that extends past 3:00PM may make you feel better in the short term, but will disrupt your sleep at night, leaving you with an increased risk of extended sleep loss.

Balance and consistency are essential components of a healthy relationship with sleep.

For some, sleep is often the first to go when competing priorities make demands on our time.  Sleep, though, is when the body repairs itself physically and mentally for the demands necessitated by our busy lifestyles.  Skimping on sleep is not only unhealthy, but can be dangerous to our health and an insurmountable obstacle to living a healthier lifestyle.  Staying balanced and consistent with your approach to sleep, just like you do with your fitness and diet, can remove the barriers to a healthier lifestyle, leaving you far more productive during your waking hours.

Do you struggle with sleep or does a regular sleep schedule come easily to you?