Study suggest catch-up sleep is bad for your attention and creativity

[Venant]

At first we should recognize that this was a limited study, with only 28 participants, but it confirms what many people might have suspected if you ever spent time under circumstances similar to the students in the study. Attempting to 'catch up' on sleep over the weekends is actually counter-productive, since it throws off your hormone balance and circadian rhythm even more.

Anyone else have similar experiences to this?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/sleep-...ents-1.4099422

excerpt from article:

As a college or university student, sleep can sometimes feel like an adversary instead of an ally. Whether cramming for exams, staying up all night to finish an assignment, or just wanting the day to yourself, sleep is often in short supply. However, new research from the U.S. suggests following abnormal sleep patterns comes at a cost for students.

While lack of sleep is a universal post-secondary experience, studio-based disciplines like the fine arts, architecture and interior design are notorious for taking sleep deprivation to an unhealthy extreme, according to Elise King. King is an assistant professor of interior design at Baylor University and lead author of a new paper that looks at students' sleep habits.

Michael Scullin, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, was also part of the study, which investigated how the creativity and attention of interior design students were affected by sleep marathons, where people try to catch up on missed rest.

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An example would be going from sleeping five hours per night from Monday to Friday, to crashing for 10 or 12 hours a night over the weekend. Rebounding on sleep in such fashion interferes with the hormonal balance of the circadian rhythm, which confuses the body's sense of when to sleep.

In an interview with CBC News, Scullin said interior design was chosen as a good example of a studio-based course.

"Creativity is important to this profession, and we wanted to capture that," he said.

[Forgettable]

Eh, I sleep 6-8 hours on weekdays and then 8-10 hours on weekends. Works fine, I'm always well rested.

But then again, I've never had problems sleeping so I'm probably a bad example.

[ItachiZaku]

I get my sleep.

[Magicpot]

can't relate. I can sleep in almost an instant whenever I want to and have quite fine tuned control about how long I do. 5-6 hours during the week, and 8-9 on the weekend serves me well in that I'm almost never particularly sleepy and I feel well rested and well prepared.

[Dug]

It feels good but it does ruin a sleep schedule if you're not careful with it. I already have a sketchy sleep schedule as it is and if I sleep an extra few hours on the weekend then come sunday I have trouble getting to sleep that night to prepare for the week ahead and cycle repeats.

More often than not though I can't even sleep in if I wanted to since I'm so used to waking up at 6-8am. Even if I stayed up till 2-3am the night before I'll still wake up by 8 at the latest.

[Freighter]

I envy people who can sleep in or sleep when they want to.

[Revik]

The way the title is worded very poorly. If you normally wake up at 7am and sleep at 11pm. It is much different if you decide to sleep at 9 or 10pm but still waking up at 7am than it is to sleep at 1am and waking up at 9am. Waking up at 9am is going to screw you up more than sleeping early.

[Afrospinach]

Eh, I sleep 6-8 hours on weekdays and then 8-10 hours on weekends. Works fine, I'm always well rested.

But then again, I've never had problems sleeping so I'm probably a bad example.

I would say with your 6-8 hours on the weekdays you are already in the healthy zone, clearly just lazy on weekends