ELi5: Experts say you can’t “pre-sleep” and also can’t catch up on lost sleep; what exactly does that mean? Since it’s not like I feel tired for the rest of my life after missing a night’s sleep, after a few days of good sleep I’m back to normal.

Question

Does “not being able to catch up on lost sleep” mean that every night of lost sleep accumulates to a shorter life span, more illness, or something of the sort?

In: Biology

Answer 1

In the same way you can’t charge your phone to 200% if you’re going to be away camping, you can’t get more sleep before a long day to avoid being tired, and you can’t get extra sleep afterwards to recover. Sleep needs to be constant and reasonably measured in order to be healthy both mentally and physically.