Whether you have an early flight or are preparing for a night out, many of us know the stress that comes with knowing you won’t get much sleep that night.
It can be hard to make up for those lost hours, but experts say there’s actually an easy way to protect against the effects of sleep deprivation.
Sleep-deprived means getting extra sleep leading up to the day you know you’ll be sleep-deprived — and it can be as little as an hour a night.
For example, this could be going to bed six nights earlier for an event at the end of the week or taking a 20-minute nap during your lunch break.
Sleep-banking is the practice of taking a few extra hours of rest each night leading up to a period when you know you will sleep less, such as while traveling or after having a child.
“I think trying to get as much sleep as possible leading up to a period where you think sleep could be problematic is definitely helpful,” Dr. Chris Winter, a neurologist and sleep expert, told DailyMail.com.
“While it may not necessarily be as good as sleeping perfectly every night of your life, I don’t know who falls into that category.”
For most people, the body needs seven to nine hours a night to ward off numerous illnesses.
Sleep couching is the practice of getting more sleep than usual for a short period of time, leading up to a time when you know you won’t get much sleep. This could mean getting an extra hour of sleep each night leading up to an early morning flight.
The concept of sleeper sofas was first conceived in 2009 by researchers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
In their studythe team planned to rest if possible to prepare for sleepless nights.
They found that participants who slept for periods when they got less sleep than usual were more alert compared to those who stuck to their normal routine.
In addition, a 2020 review suggested that sleeper sofas could provide critical improvements reaction time in soldiers.
The idea is that once you hit a busy period, you can rely on the sleep you’ve earned.
He pointed to one Swiss study from 2021 which tested whether or not it was better to get a total of 56 hours of sleep per week by sleeping the same amount of time each night (eight hours per night for seven nights), or by averaging those 56 hours over the week.
“It was basically saying, ‘Look, your risk of dying isn’t any different if you’re getting an average of seven or eight hours of sleep a night than if you’re actually getting that,'” Dr. Winter said.
In addition, a French study has been published in the journal Sleep had participants sleep seven or nine hours a night for the week before limiting their sleep to just three hours. The group that saved extra hours was less likely to make significant errors on a reaction time test than the group that didn’t save more sleep.
The participants in the nine-hour group also recovered faster from their sleep deprivation period.
Sleep couching can reduce sleep debt, also known as sleep deprivation. According to the Sleep FoundationThis is the difference between the amount of sleep you need and how much you actually get. For example, if your body needs eight hours of sleep and you only get six, you’ve built up two hours of sleep debt.
Sleep debt is cumulative, so if you go to bed an hour later than usual for a few days in a row, that adds up.
Sleeper sofas could help a third of Americans who don’t get enough rest each night. According to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 34 percent of American adults don’t get at least seven hours of sleep, the recommended amount per night.
The key is making up for the amount of sleep lost in a week, Dr. Winter said. After this point, those hours start to pile up.
“As long as you do it quickly and you’re pretty diligent about it, I think that can lead to a perfectly healthy and happy life,” he said.
A lack of sleep is consistently linked to chronic health problems such as heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity and depression.
According to 2020 data from the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which surveyed 400,000 Americans in the U.S., Hawaii, West Virginia, and Kentucky are the most sleep-deprived states.
Sleep deprivation in this dataset means less than seven hours per night.
The states with the least sleep deprivation were Colorado, Minnesota and South Dakota.
This drops to 26 percent as adults are over age 65, but that’s still more than a quarter of adults who don’t get enough sleep.
Men are more likely than women to get insufficient sleep overall, with 33.3 percent saying they sleep less than seven hours a night, compared to 32.1 percent of women.
The CDC says 8.4 percent of American adults take pills to fall asleep, more than double the number they took 10 years earlier.
These can rob the body of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Too little REM sleep can lead to forgetfulness and make it harder to get up in the morning.
The CDC recommends that all Americans get seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Children from six to twelve years old need nine to twelve hours a night, teenagers eight to ten hours.
Sleeping in on the weekend or taking a nap in the middle of the day are easy ways to fit sofa sleep into the week.
“My main tip is that this shouldn’t be the default position,” said Dr. Winter. “Is the thing you count on something you could have avoided? If the answer is yes, let’s talk about ways to avoid being in this position.”
This includes trying not to stay up late to watch a TV show or go out.
However, if you can’t avoid sleeping on the sofa, such as if you work the night shift or have a newborn, keep it consistent. If you take a nap in the middle of the day, do it around the same time and for the same length of time every day.
“Try to make it almost like an appointment rather than ‘I’ll just sleep when I can,'” Dr. Winter said.