Napping and weekend catchup sleep do not fully compensate for high rates of sleep debt and short sleep at a population level (in a representative nationwide sample of 12,637 adults).

Introduction: Short total sleep time (TST < 6 h) is a strong major health determinant that correlates with numerous metabolic, cardiovascular and mental comorbidities, as well as accidents. Our aim was to better understand, at a population level, how adults adapt their TST during the week, and how short sleepers and those with sleep debt and sleep restriction use napping or catching up on sleep during weekends (ie, sleep debt compensation by sleeping longer), which may prevent these comorbidities.

Methods: A large representative sample of 12,367 subjects (18-75 years old) responded by phone to questions about sleep on a national recurrent health poll (Health Barometer, Santé Publique France 2017) assessing sleep schedules (TST) at night, when napping, and over the course of a 24-h period while using a sleep log on workdays and weekends. Retained items were: (1) short sleep (TST ≤ 6 h/24 h); (2) chronic insomnia (international classification of sleep disorders third edition, ICSD-3 criteria); (3) sleep debt (self-reported ideal TST - TST > 60 min, severe > 90 min); and (4) sleep restriction (weekend TST - workday TST = 1-2 h, severe > 2 h).

Results: Average TST/24 h was 6h42 (± 3 min) on weekdays and 7h26 (± 3 min) during weekends. In addition, 35.9% (± 1.0%) of the subjects were short sleepers, 27.7% (± 1.0%) had sleep debt (18.8% (± 0.9%) severe), and 17.4% (± 0.9%) showed sleep restriction (14.4% (± 0.8%) severe). Moreover, 27.4% (± 0.9%) napped at least once per week on weekdays (average: 8.3 min (± 0.5 min)) and 32.2% (± 1.0%) on weekend days (13.7 min (± 0.7 min)). Of the 24.2% (± 0.9%) of subjects with severe sleep debt (> 90 min), only 18.2% (± 1.6%) balanced their sleep debt by catching up on sleep on weekends (14.9% (± 0.8%) of men and 21.5% (± 0.9%) of women), and 7.4% (± 1.2%) of these subjects balanced their sleep debt by napping (7.8% (± 0.5%) of men and 6.6% (± 0.4%) of women). The remaining 75.8% (± 5.4%) did not do anything to balance their severe sleep debt during the week.

Discussion And Conclusions: Short sleep, sleep debt, and sleep restriction during weekdays affected about one third of adults in our study group. Napping and weekend catch-up sleep only compensated for severe sleep debt in one in four subjects.