‘People should not feel guilty’: weekend lie-in may be good for you, experts say
Previous advice stressed risks of sleeping in but about 90 minutes extra could prevent high blood pressure
TL;DR
- Moderate weekend lie-ins may be beneficial for health, specifically in protecting against high blood pressure.
- An ideal benchmark of approximately 1 hour and 27 minutes of extra weekend sleep is associated with a lower prevalence of hypertension.
- Catch-up sleep on weekends can help the body recover from sleep loss experienced during the week.
- Getting too much extra sleep on weekends (more than four hours) can be harmful and increase the risk of hypertension.
- While a regular sleep schedule remains important, moderate weekend catch-up sleep should not be a cause for guilt.