Paying sleep debt with extra hours doesn’t help the brain, study suggests

A recent study by the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that getting extra hours of sleep may not be an effective solution to restore cognitive function after a period of inadequate sleep.

The research, published on January 14 and released in the journal Sleep in March, reveals that individuals who consistently sleep eight hours daily have better cognitive performance than those with consistent short sleep of six hours or a variable short sleep pattern alternating between eight and four hours – even with a few extra hours of sleep on the weekends. While variable sleep may reduce the cognitive deficits observed in the short sleep group, it does not protect against lapses in processing speed and memory task performance, the study noted.