People who do not get the right amount of sleep during the week often try to make up for it on weekends. But a new sleep study suggests the tactic may backfire. Sleep experts discovered that weekday sleep loss had negative impacts on people’s metabolism and catch up sleep on the weekend did not reverse it.

As a matter of fact, there were symptoms that the additional weekend shut eye could make matters worse; this is according to a sleep expert known as Kenneth Wright, a professor at the University of Colorado.

Also, according to him, people must begin to get the right amount of sleep on a daily basis. Supposing that you want to lead a healthy lifestyle, he said, that has to include good sleep habits. A sleep study published on the 28^th of February in the Journal Current Biology ran a test on 36 healthy young adults. These 36 young adults were randomly assigned to one of the three groups that all spent 9 nights in the sleep lab.

The first group was allowed to sleep for close to 9 hours every night. another group could only get a sleep of about 5 hours every night while the last group was only allowed 5 hours of sleep for just 5 days, then a weekend recovery period where they could get to sleep in as late as they wanted, after that, they go back to the same 5 hours of sleep for 2 nights.

It was discovered that in the second and third groups who were sleep deprived, they all lost some of their sensitivity to insulin, a hormone that controls and regulates blood sugar. In addition, they began to consume more foods at night and added in their weight, on average.

The group that was allowed to sleep in on the weekend saw only one benefit which is less late night consumption on those days. Nevertheless, they went right back to post dinner munching immediately they returned to their normal 5 hour sleep nights. And their insulin sensitivity stayed impaired.

In addition to this, they expressed reduced insulin sensitivity in the liver and muscles, specifically which was not discovered in the group that did not the right amount of sleep even during the weekends.

As time goes by, reduced insulin sensitivity can be the reason why you are subject to type 2 diabetes. And a number of sleep studies have connected chronic sleep loss to heightened risks of diabetes and obesity.

Generally, sleep experts recommend that grownups have at least 7 hours of sleep, if not more every night for the sake of their overall health. Still, sleep studies show that more than 1/3 of United States adults do not get the right amount of sleep they need.

A sleep expert and professor at the North-western University School of Medicine, Dr. Phyllis Zee, says that people tend to buy into the myth that by getting enough sleep during the weekends, they will reverse the adverse impacts of repeated sleep loss.

But, according to Dr. Phyllis Zee, who was not involved in the new study discovered by a team, says that the results of this study support that it is indeed a myth. As a matter of fact, even the muscle and liver do not forget the adverse and persistent impacts of sleeping for a short period of time.

He also comes to say that real life can get in the way of optimal sleep. But he added that individuals in our world should take an honest look at their habits and see if they can make enough time for a good night’s sleep.

Questions you need to face are, what are the sleep stealers you have currently in your life? Are you up late watching TV or you are the computer? Well, it may shock you that late night screen use is an issue not only because it takes your time from not getting the right amount of sleep, but also starring at a blue light before sleeping can actually disrupt your ability to fall asleep.

Sleep is very important for a range of body processes, not only metabolism. And Dr. Phyllis Zee said there is evidence that other effect of chronic sleep loss which includes dampened alertness and mental performance. The two cannot be erased with a couple of nights of poor sleep.

In conclusion, people should take note that not getting the right amount of sleep or untreated sleep disorders can put you at high risk for metabolic problems, not forgetting obesity and diabetes as well. So, regularity in both timing along with duration of sleep is key to brain and body health, that is, physically and mentally fine as well as having a healthy life.