After an endless week of metro-work-sleep, the start of the weekend often seems like a real gift from heaven. It's the perfect time to chill in front of Netflix in a pilou-pilou, have a drink with friends, party... and sleep. Sleeping a lot a lot. And apparently, we would be totally right about that. Because, according to a study conducted by Swedish and American researchers, people under 65 who sleep less than five hours a night on weekends would see their risk of dying prematurely increase! Oops…
Published in the “Journal of Sleep Research”, the study is based on data from more than 30,000 people followed over a period of 13 years. Scientists have realized that the mortality risk of a person sleeping less than five hours or more than nine hours a night is higher than that of people sleeping six to seven hours a night during the week.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers took into account mortality factors according to gender, level of education, body mass index, serious illnesses, use of sleeping pills, as well as tobacco consumption, alcohol, physical activity, caffeine, and work status. One of the authors of the study, Torbjörn Åkerstedt, professor of neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, explains that these results fit perfectly with those obtained during previous research on the link between sleep duration and mortality. But these were mainly focused on sleep during the week, and not during the weekend, that's all the difference.
Thus, by way of conclusion, the authors write:“The results indicate that short weekday nights do not represent a risk factor for mortality if combined with medium or long weekend sleep…” “This suggests that short nights on weekdays can be compensated for on weekends, and this has implications for mortality. they add. Ah well, we are reassured!
