Can You Catch Up on Lost Sleep?

[Mad Jay]

Originally Posted by Lainie

Where are you getting that definition?

ETA: Here's how the OP article explains sleep debt:



One of the reasons people don't get enough sleep is insomnia.

From the sentence that follows the one you quoted

Getting eight hours of shut-eye each night is generally recommended, but many people don't. As the week rolls from Monday to Friday, they accumulate a sleep debt. Spending a few extra hours in bed on a Saturday morning, people assume, will help them "catch up" on lost sleep. They're likely right. "Nobody knows how long the horizon is, probably a few nights, but studies show that recovery sleep in the short term does work," says Dr. Winter, a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine

[Lainie]

You'll have to connect the dots for me. I don't see how you got from that to your definition of sleep debt.

[geminilee]

That specified short term debt. For long term debt, you would need to plan a vacation. http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/up...eep-debt.shtml Look at the bottom of the page (Sorry, but it really is a pain to cut and paste on this phone).

Many people cannot afford that "vacation" to sleep in. The remain in debt, except for those briefly refreshed times on the weekend. It is not like an extra couple hours is going to make up for 2 or 3 (or more) missed hours of sleep every night for weeks, months, or even years. The article I linked to even linked it to increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This is a real thing, and a real problem.

ETA: See what I mean about being not all there? I just constructed a fairly reasoned response.to a point that was not made (I think). If that quote was meant to illustrate how you got the definition, my answer was nonsense. If it was meant to show that you could catch up easy by sleeping in on your day off, then my argument stands.