A new study finds that sleeping late on the weekends may help your cardiovascular health. The British study found people who got the most additional sleep on the weekend were nearly 20% less likely to develop heart disease than those who didn’t.
SLU Care general internist Dr. Fred Buckhold at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital said adults typically need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, or about 56 hours a week.
“If, you know, Monday through Friday, you’re at, say, 35 hours of sleep, you’re now 21 hours in debt,” he said. “Making that up over the weekend probably has a benefit.”
Previous research has already linked sleep problems with a range of health issues that put people at a higher risk for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.
“Most humans, most adults, need, we say, on average, eight hours of sleep a night. The way that comes from is basically you need four good sleep cycles in a night,” said Buckhold.
About one in three people said they don’t get enough rest or sleep every night.
“There’s clear evidence that if people aren’t getting that amount of sleep a lot of times, there’s some even information about like, if you wake up in the middle of a cycle, that’s less that’s not optimal as well, and that does lead to health outcomes,” he said.
KMOX Radio in St. Louis contributed to this report.
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