What you’ll learn:
- You can’t “catch up” on sleep over the weekend—consistent 7- to 9-hour nights matter more than occasional recovery sleep.
- Short sleep adds up, affecting focus in the short term and increasing risks for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease over time.
- Sleep timing matters as much as duration—keeping a consistent wake-up schedule helps protect metabolic and overall health.
After a few nights of not getting enough sleep, it’s easy to think you can just catch up on lost sleep over the weekend.
The plan feels reasonable—borrow sleep during the week, repay it on Saturday.
But according to Dr. Jeffrey Egler, MD, Noom’s Chief Medical Officer, that strategy doesn’t actually solve the problem.
When it comes to “catching up” on missed sleep, he says, “Unfortunately, this is not gonna work. Weekend catch-up sleep does not fix a weekday sleep debt.”
Sleep doesn’t simply reset after one or two long nights. When sleep debt builds, the effects can accumulate.
Here are three important facts about sleep and your health, and what actually helps
Fact: You can’t make up for sleep on the weekends
The idea of weekend recovery sleep is appealing. If you lose sleep during the week, why not extend it on Saturday?
But research suggests that doesn’t fully reverse the effects of restriction.
“One controlled trial found weekend recovery sleep did not prevent the metabolic disruption caused by weekday restriction,” explains Dr. Egler.
In that study, people who restricted sleep during the week and then slept longer on the weekend still experienced measurable metabolic effects. “You still see worse insulin control and weight gain signals. So you gotta go for at least 7 to 9 hours nightly,” says Dr. Egler.
That word—nightly—matters. The goal isn’t occasional recovery. It’s consistent sleep. Weekend sleep-ins may feel helpful, but they don’t eliminate accumulated sleep debt.
Fact: Missing sleep affects your health now—and later
Short sleep has immediate effects. “Chronic episodes of short sleep cause cumulative performance and attention deficits, and you can’t just bounce back in a day or two or even three.”
In the short term, restricted sleep can impair attention and performance. Those effects compound when short sleep becomes a pattern.
Over the long term, insufficient sleep is also tied to chronic disease risk.
“One in 3 adults sleeps under 7 hours, and that’s the threshold tied to higher risks of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and more,” says Dr. Egler.
Sleeping under seven hours on a regular basis has been associated with increased cardiometabolic risk.
Sleep duration isn’t just about feeling rested. It’s linked to measurable health outcomes.
Fact: Irregular sleep timing is linked to poorer health
While how long you sleep is important, sleep consistency matters too. Going to sleep and waking up at different times every day can also be bad for your health. And the weekends count. Shifting your sleep schedule back and forth between weekdays and weekends can create irregular timing.
“Irregular timing, also known as social jet lag, is linked to higher cardiometabolic risk and inflammation,” says Dr. Egler.
So consistency in when you wake up matters, not just how long you sleep.
3 ways to improve your sleep
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s consistency.
Dr. Egler offers simple guidance: “Set a goal of lights out 15 minutes earlier. Add a 15-minute morning light walk, and try to keep a streak of same wake times, plus or minus 30 minutes. Small wins, big results.”
You can’t fully erase chronic sleep loss in one or two days. But consistent sleep duration and timing can support better short-term performance and long-term health.
If you’re looking for more practical ways get more sleep and improve your health, Noom can help. Download the Noom app on iOS & Android to get daily lessons on how to build healthy habits that last and more. Here are some more tips on getting better sleep.
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