The senior high school entrance examination is round the corner. Tasks and tests will keep for many of you stay up late, and you may plan to make up for the lost sleep time on weekends. Is it helpful? A recent study shows that the habit of catching up on sleep during weekends doesn't fix the damage done by lack of sleep during the week. Even worse, it may damage your health.
In the study, which was done over 10 days, 36 healthy young people were divided into three groups. The first and second groups were asked to sleep nine hours and five hours a night respectively. Members of the third group slept for five hours on weekdays, but rested as long as they wanted on weekends.
The researchers found that people who were short of sleep gained weight quickly. However, this wasn't the case with the first group. That might be due to the change of the biological clock and certain body hormones. To catch up on sleep during weekends, people in the third group would usually eat later. So, their biological clocks would be changed, which also changed the release of specific hormones." The hormone leptin decreases appetite, while the hormone ghrelin increases appetite," explained US researcher Polotsky,"Sleep deprivationcauses leptin to drop and ghrelin to rise. Therefore, when you lack sleep, you will eat more and get fatter, which may make you sad."
And even if they tried to sleep for a long time during weekends, researchers explained, it wasn't enough to meet standard sleep time because they found it difficult to fall asleep. Also, Polotsky added," short, insufficient sleep schedules will lead to an inability to change blood sugar and cause people health problems. " So the experts suggest at least seven hours of sleep each night for adults and more for kids.
Some tips for a relaxing and peaceful night:
●Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day
●Reduce long daytime naps,20 minutes advised.
●Avoid using electric products late in the evening
