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

That was what they thought until recently at least. New research suggests you can catch up on lost sleep. You can heal your brain once you get into REM sleep again, it may take a long time depending on big your deficit is to catch up to but it’s definitely possible.