Many things—both serious and unserious—have kept us up late at night. Worrying about a looming recession. Feeling helpless as the world continues to devolve. Crying over your escapism show turning into a too-personal reliving the last time you’ve gotten your heart irrevocably broken. (We’re looking at you, The Summer I Turned Pretty. #TeamConrad, you are seen.)
While spending a night or two awake much later than usual is par for the course during these very stressful times, what happens when you find yourself skipping a full night’s sleep for several days, weeks, or even months on end?
You might be in what experts call a sleep debt—and it’s something you should pay attention to and try to course correct ASAP.
Is sleep debt real?
Sleep debt, also known as a sleep deficit, is a very real thing. Jan Stritzke, MD, founding medical director at Lanserhof Sylt, says to think of sleep debt as the cumulative gap between the sleep you need (which experts say should be around seven to nine hours a night) and the sleep you actually get. When you continuously get less sleep than you need, it can wreak havoc on your overall health.
If you happen to stay up late one evening, there’s no need to worry about a sleep debt if you go back to your regular sleep schedule after. A sleep debt occurs when you consistently stay up late over several days, weeks, or months. “If your body requires eight hours of sleep each night but you consistently get only six, those two missing hours accumulate,” explains Dr. Stritzke. “By Friday you’ve effectively lost an entire night of rest.”
Tahir Malik, MD, a fellow in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine at Mount Sinai, says sleep debt affects an individual in several ways. If you’re feeling sleepy during the day, have slower reaction times than usual, are extremely irritable, and have measurable changes in your metabolism and stress hormones, you might be experiencing a sleep debt.
The downsides
When you continuously get less sleep than you need, it can wreak havoc on your overall health. “Even losing just an hour or two each night can have measurable effects on brain performance, mood, and physical health,” says Dr. Stritzke. “Chronic sleep deprivation promotes inflammaging, insulin, and telomere shortening [the shortening of the ends of our chromosomes]. Persistent sleep debt is also considered a hallmark accelerator of aging.”
Dr. Malik further explains that sleep debt can cause problems with attention span, memory, and decision-making while also hindering your mood. The physical health effects of sleep debt include obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, depression, and even a shorter lifespan. Masrai Williams, MD, a sleep-medicine fellow at Mount Sinai, adds that sleep loss can rewire your appetite, making you crave sugar and more carbs, and weaken your immune system, causing even more long-term health risks. “Sleep is not an indulgence,” says Dr. Williams. “It is a foundation of health.”
How do you recover from sleep debt?
If you believe that you can just catch up on sleep on the weekends, you might want to rethink that strategy. Experts say that, while it may feel good temporarily, it won’t fix sleep debt long term. “You can’t erase chronic sleep debt with one or two nights of extra rest,” says Dr. Malik. “[That type of] recovery is incomplete, and the interest compounds over time.”
“What it actually does is throw off your circadian rhythm, creating what we call social jet lag,” adds Dr. Stritzke. “The body struggles to restart, making the workweek even harder to face. More importantly, the deep sleep lost during the week cannot simply be repaid later, as certain regenerative processes like cellular repair and memory consolidation are time-bound.” He says that the body needs a gradual extension of sleep time that will realign your natural circadian rhythm and restore your REM sleep cycle.
Dr. Malik suggests prioritizing either earlier or longer sleep over multiple consecutive nights to get back to normal. You’ll also want to keep a stable sleep and wake schedule to realign your body clock. If you must nap, he suggests doing so strategically to avoid interfering with your sleep schedule. This often takes weeks (“not days,” says Dr. Stritzke), so patience is key.
“Real recovery takes consistency,” says Dr. Williams. “Your body needs seven to nine hours every night until the balance clears. Sleep is a marathon, not a sprint.”
Can you prevent it?
Of course the best route is always prevention. You can do this by sticking to a sleep routine. “The best protection is rhythm,” says Dr. Stritzke. “Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day (including weekends) is more powerful than people realize.” Where you sleep also matters. He recommends picking a cool, dark, quiet bedroom and reducing your screen time before going to bed. You’ll also want to avoid caffeine late in the day and keep your evening meals light to improve your sleep.
Dr. Williams adds that you’ll want to add small rituals that will have a big impact on your sleep routine. Save intense workouts for earlier in the day, he says, and try setting up both a wake-up alarm and a bedtime alarm to remind yourself when to wind down with your nighttime routines. If you must nap, he says to keep it short and before midafternoon so it doesn’t throw off your sleep schedule. If none of these work after a few weeks and you still feel exhausted, it might be a sign of a more serious health condition, and you should see a sleep doctor.
So if you’re constantly playing catch-up in the sleep department, it’s worth exploring ways to help reset your normal sleep schedule. Your body and overall health will thank you. “The way you sleep sets the stage for how you function mentally, physically, and emotionally,” says Dr. Malik. “Give yourself the best chance to thrive by making sleep a priority and giving your body the full rest it deserves.”
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