Why does my 15 hours of sleep on the weekend not counteract the 4 hours I get on a weeknight?
In: Biology
You can bank sleep according to some studies. Military and shift workers who may need to work through sleep cycles can use this to improve mental and physical capabilities during extended wakefulness. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4667377/
Your brain is like a bunch of young kids cooped up in a house. Throughout the day, the kids are running around making messes, and the dishes and laundry they use keep piling up. The adult(s) can’t take care of the mess until the kids aren’t needing constant attention. You can fall behind on tidying and cleaning but even if you have extra time, you can’t clean up the next day’s messes before they happen.
The brain is similar. While it’s awake, it builds up “messiness” that it can’t take care of until it’s asleep, when the body and brain slow down enough to focus on cleaning up the mess.
Other people have given great answers, but to add – sleep debt is not a very accurate name for chronically under-sleeping.
Sleep debt is more like cumulative damage to your well-being, some of which can be repaired by healthy sleep habits.
It’s really important that people know that sleep debt isn’t something you can repay 1:1, you can’t constantly get 4-5 hours of sleep and “catch up” on the weekend and be square.
There was a guy who took this to the extreme in the 90’s, inspired by a radio contest. He stayed awake for 11 days, setting a record. When he finally did sleep, if memory serves, he slept like 10 hours? He developed permanent brain damage, antisocial tendencies, and permanent severe insomnia. (And honestly, he’s lucky to be alive.)
The moral of the story, 5 hours on Thursday night and 11 hours on Friday night does not equal 8 and 8. Be careful out there, folks.
FYI It’s not exactly true.
You can store up a very limited sleep surplus : it’s called “ prophylactic napping”. It’s essentially done right before an all-nighter. The benefit disappear if you wait. Also it will cover for one night at best.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1947593/
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Since its winter and I am thinking about snow, another ELI5 comparison is how we get rid of the snow.
If we don’t plow or anything the snow can build up to many feet high, but we can’t plow in advance. The road can only be clear at best, but snow can keep building up.
Sleep is the body doing a kind of maintenance, it can only get the body to a clear and ready state.
The harmful effects of staying awake can keep building up until it’s cleared properly.
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You *can* run a sleep surplus, but it doesn’t last as long as running sleep debt does. Sleep is complicated; we don’t understand fully how it works.
Same like you can’t pee when there is nothing in your bladder, you don’t need sleep before our body has a need for it
Your brain is like a trash can. Throughout the day it fills up with garbage, and at night that garbage is slowly removed. If you don’t get enough sleep, only some of the garbage gets taken out. Over time, it builds up until your can is almost always full. A full can is bad and makes you fall asleep or hallucinate.
However if you sleep lots and lots, your trash-can can’t get under 0% full. It will always only hold a certain amount of garbage.
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