The fast paced life with almost 12 to 16 hours workload on weekdays deprives many people a sound sleep. It is a common occurrence with most of the employees, working hard to earn their income. However, many of us do not notice the ‘evil effects’ of deprivation of sleep on our body from this workload. It happens usually in the age from 16 to 40 that most people tend to sacrifice their sleep for work. When we ask people how you’d make up your lost sleep, a common answer comes that “I’ll sleep in on the weekends”. I’m sure we’ve all had similar thoughts. Unfortunately, researches shows that sleep deprivation caused in weekdays cannot be covered up in weekends. Sleeping on the weekends will not solve the issue of sleep disorders that you have developed unknowingly.
Sub-Par Sleep Can Have Various Adverse Effects On Your Body
Did you know that sub-par sleep can have various adverse effects on your body? The common adverse effects that can come from sub-par sleep are:
- Drowsiness
- Reduced attention span
- Hypertension
- Irregular level of blood sugar
- Frequent mood change
- Stress & fatigue
To help you more understand the above the adverse effects from sleeping in weekends to compensate weekdays sleep, I will try to share an interesting research by Alexandros N. Vgontzas of Penn State University College of Medicine.
Research Main Idea
Experiment on 30 people on a sleep schedule limiting weekday sleep.
Research Main Outcomes (Source: News wise Website)
- “The researchers found that the volunteers’ sleepiness increased significantly after sleep restriction, but returned to baseline after recovery sleep.”
- “The volunteers’ measures on a performance test that assessed their ability to pay attention deteriorated significantly after sleep restriction and did not improve after recovery.”
- “Two nights of extended recovery sleep may not be sufficient to overcome behavioral alertness deficits resulting from mild sleep restriction.”
You can notice that sleep-debt can be a challenging health problem. However, if I were to look at common mass opinion, many of us do not care for such studies and still goes on with our life as it is. I understand the feelings; as work is important and without that survival is difficult. However, I can help you if you can follow the three suggestions/advise on the next paragraph. It’ll surly help you improvise on your sleep habits along with the regular work you do.
How To Improvise Your Sleep On Weekdays?
To improvise your sleep on weekdays, here are three things you can do:
- Avoid intake of caffeine – Try to develop a habit to reduce your habit or completely stop intake of drinking coffee, energy drinks or high caffeinated products before, after or in-between your working hours. Overuse of caffeine can cause serious sleep related and other health problems. There are many good substitutes available in the market which can help you stay active and help you wake up in the morning exactly like your coffee or any caffeinated drink does.
- Do not leave work for later evening – Try to get your work done in a scheduled way. Try to complete your work in the fixed working hours of the office. Do not leave any kind of work to be completed in evening, which results to working additional hours. So time and tune
your work in a way that when you leave office, you do not carry any load on your head and stay worry less. A sleep without any stress and worry is a good sleep. So plan your work and leave office at the right time. - Set a daily sleep routine – The best way to improvise your circadian rhythm or your biological clock responsible for sleep is to set a consistent sleep schedule. Do not go to bed whenever you feel like, try to fix a time and no matter what go to bed at that time every day. The more you mess around with your sleeping time, the more worst it gets.
Remember that planning a proper sleep mechanism on weekdays can help you to increase your potential to work and remain more active rather than recovering the lost sleep on the weekends.
For more information on sleep disorders, insomnia, circadian rhythm sleep disorders and other related sleep issues or sleep disorders, please click here.
