Sleeping an extra hour or two on the weekends can significantly reduce the risk of high blood pressure, according to a study presented at the European Society of Cardiology annual congress in Munich, Germany. Al Jazeera reported that while medical professionals have traditionally advised maintaining strict, consistent sleep schedules throughout the week including weekends, this recent research challenges that long-standing consensus, suggesting that weekend lie-ins benefit overall cardiovascular health.
The findings were derived from a seven-year study involving forty thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven adults in South Korea, utilizing data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey collected between two thousand and sixteen and two thousand and twenty-three. Researchers examined the impact of extra weekend sleep hours following demanding workweeks and discovered a direct correlation with lower hypertension prevalence. However, researchers emphasized that these benefits are observed only when lie-ins remain moderate, typically lasting between one and two hours, with an optimal increase of approximately one hour and thirty-seven minutes.
Overall, weekend catch-up sleep was associated with a six percent decrease in the likelihood of developing high blood pressure. This reduction was even more pronounced among physically inactive individuals, who experienced a nearly seven percent decrease in hypertension risk. The study further noted that individuals achieving the optimal extra sleep duration of one hour and thirty-seven minutes could reduce their hypertension risk by up to nine percent. According to World Health Organization figures, approximately one point four billion adults aged thirty to seventy-nine worldwide suffer from hypertension, accounting for roughly one-third of the global population in that age bracket.
Nawon Lee, the lead author of the study from Korea University in Seoul, explained that chronic sleep deprivation places unnecessary physical stress on the body, forcing the heart and blood vessels to work harder and subsequently elevating blood pressure. She noted that individuals should not feel guilty for sleeping longer on weekends when weekday rest is insufficient, as it serves as a natural recovery mechanism for sleep debt. Nevertheless, researchers cautioned that excessive weekend lie-ins can disrupt the body`s natural circadian rhythm, potentially offsetting the cardiovascular advantages gained from the catch-up rest.
