Catch up on sleep the night after a sleepless night — don’t wait until the weekend

No cost at all. Those extra hours of sleep you make up are exactly what you’d have wanted to get anyway.

This study used data from 85,618 UK Biobank participants, with an average age of 61.8 years. Wrist-worn monitors tracked their daily sleep, and they were followed for a median of 8 years. The researchers first identified each person’s individual sleep needs, then defined “sleep deficit nights” as nights when they got at least 2.5 hours less sleep than required. The first night after such a deficit was called a “catch-up night”, and if they got more sleep than needed that night, they were counted as having made up the deficit. Five distinct sleep patterns were identified based on this framework. Compared to people with regular sleep schedules, those who lost sleep and did not catch up had a 15% higher risk of all-cause death (HR 1.15, 95% CI 1.01–1.31, a reliable range). For those with a cumulative sleep deficit of over 3.5 hours who also failed to catch up, the risk rose by around 42% (HR 1.42, 1.24–1.63). No significant risk increases were found in the two groups who did make up their sleep deficit; for those who lost sleep but caught up, the HR was 1.12 (0.98–1.28). Among people who naturally get less sleep, those who lost sleep and did not make it up had a 19% higher risk (HR 1.19, 1.01–1.40), while those with a severe sleep deficit and no catch-up showed a 38% higher risk (HR 1.38, 1.17–1.63). These findings were replicated in a separate US health survey of 4,586 participants.

Li X, Zhang M, Li Z, 等 (2026). Acute sleep rebound following sleep restriction is associated with reduced mortality risk. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72461-1

This is an observational study with no formal grouping of participants. People who cannot make up lost sleep may simply be busier or in poorer health, and this factor cannot be fully ruled out. The fact that no risk increase was detected in the two groups who caught up only means no statistically significant difference was found; their point estimates remain above 1, so catching up does not completely eliminate risk. Therefore, if you lose sleep, you should make it up as soon as possible — but this does not give you a free pass to stay up late regularly. The “catch-up sleep” referenced here means getting extra sleep on the very first night after a deficit, not saving up multiple nights of sleep to make up all at once over the weekend. The practice of staying up on weekdays and sleeping in on weekends, which creates “social jetlag”, is linked to cardiovascular disease — see Section 13 (aim for around 7 hours of sleep per night with consistent schedules). The advice to wake up at the same time every day, including on weekends (Section 3, point 2), does not conflict with this tip: this recommendation only asks you to go to bed early the night after a sleepless night, not to sleep in until noon the next day.