Weekends and vacations are for planned trips, nights out, and sleeping in. The latter may not look as productive or as worthwhile as the first two, but it actually helps your health in the long run.

Especially if you lack rest and are buried in sleep debt.

Sleep debt, sleep deficit, or sleep pressure is simply the cumulative effect of not getting enough shuteye. It lags your senses, gives you short-term memory problems and hormonal imbalance, makes you temperamental and paranoid, and in extreme cases, may cause death. So the longer you go without sleep, the more sluggish you get as the debt adds up.

And just like any other debt, you should pay this one off.

Sleeping eliminates adenosine, a waste byproduct of energy that accumulates in our brain and causes sleep debt. And for this cleanup, our bodies’ glymphatic system is responsible. Note that this purging mechanism is active when we’re asleep.

So that’s why we need to sleep in on weekends. However, it’s advisable to not overdo it—just two extra hours of bedtime in the morning is enough to bring back your regular self as it can mess up your body clock. It’s still best to develop a consistently good sleeping habit.

We’ve already written several tips on how to sleep better (since not all sleep is equal). One way is to use weighted blankets as the give off gentle and steady pressure points responsible for serotonin (mood stabilizer) production. For pet owners, it’s also a great idea to share the same bed with your furry friends as they help you rest easier.

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