Life News

A weekend lie-in may protect your heart, Korean study says, if you keep it to 1-2 hours

Sleeping in at the weekend may be good for you after all, according to research presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Munich. The study, led by Dr Nawon Lee of Korea University in Seoul, followed about 40,000 adults in South Korea over seven years and found that weekend catch-up sleep was linked to 6% lower odds of high blood pressure.

The Guardian reported that the benefit was slightly greater for physically inactive people, at 6.9%, and that the ideal amount was about one to two extra hours. Too much can backfire: people sleeping more than four extra hours at the weekend were at greater risk.

“People should not feel lazy or guilty for sleeping a little longer on the weekend.” — Dr Nawon Lee, Korea University, via The Guardian

Al Jazeera gave more detail on the data, from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 2016 to 2023, and asked an independent expert. Christopher Depner of the University of Utah explained that blood pressure normally falls during sleep, but cautioned that the findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal and that big swings in sleep timing, so-called "social jet lag", carry their own risks.

How each outlet framed it

• The Guardian — permission to rest: a guilt-free lie-in, within limits.
• Al Jazeera — an explainer: how sleep affects blood pressure, with an outside scientist's caveats.

Where the numbers differ: The Guardian gives the ideal extra sleep as 1hr 27min, while Al Jazeera says 1hr 37min. Both say this amount was linked to 9% lower odds of hypertension. Al Jazeera also gives the sample as 40,727 adults, against about 40,000 in The Guardian.