Can you really 'catch up' on lost sleep?

Image: iStock

When you’ve endured a few rough nights in a row, it’s easy to convince yourself an early bed time will pay off the sleep debt you’ve racked up, and that you’ll wake up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

It seems logical, but can you really repay your body for hours of lost sleep by banking some decent zzzzs at a later date?

Apparently the answer to that question depends largely on the individual, how much sleep they’ve lost and for how long, and what they’re willing to compromise on.

RELATED: Can’t sleep? Your feet could be the key to getting shut-eye.

“We see remarkable changes in people on little sleep. For example, if you take someone who is a seven-and-a-half hour sleeper and reduce them to five hours, we start to see effects reasonably quickly. [On] day one they might be feeling okay, but by day two the impact is significant,” says Professor David Hillman from the Sleep Foundation.

Slower reaction times, moodiness, productivity, irritability and trouble concentrating are some of the effects that will start to show. (Post continues after gallery.)

Unfortunately, if you’ve clocked up a sleep debt there isn’t always going to be an easy fix. According to Professor Hillman, a few good nights’ sleep can usually assist in getting you back to where you were prior to those late nights — provided the sleep deprivation is relatively short-lived.

However, one night of solid sleep won’t make up for, say, five nights’ worth of deprivation, which can be the case if you’re flat out at work or studying. There’s a cumulative effect: lack of sleep builds on lack of sleep.

RELATED: 7 reasons to ditch your pyjamas and sleep nude.

“Inadequate sleep is only repaid by sleep itself, and not by rest,” explains Professor Hillman.

Professor Hillman also says the effects of ‘sleep debt’ effects are dependent on the individual and how their body processes sleep deprivation.

Some people seem to cope reasonably well on minimal sleep (hello, new mums) and feel on top of the world once they've had the chance to enjoy a solid night sleep.

Apparently this has much to do with the brain's ability to process sleep and tell us that we can push through when we need to. When we reach our personal sleep deprivation limit, however, our brains begin to take over, resulting in head-nodding and micro-sleeps.

RELATED: The 5 sleeping positions that could be causing you physical pain.

Women between the ages of 35 and 50 are most susceptible to sleep deprivation, and according to recent Sleep Foundation research 20-30 per cent of Australians report they don't get enough sleep on a daily basis.

Some of these numbers are attributed to sleep disorders and conditions beyond our control, but a large number are also voluntarily losing sleep — possibly expecting to repay the debt accumulated over the week by turning off the alarm clock over the weekend.

Do you use the weekend to 'catch up' on sleep you've lost during the week?