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don't work at reducing long term sleep debts. But the question remains, is there any way to repay your sleep debt, or are those hours lost for good? The answer is yes, you can dig yourself out of the sleep hole by using the following approaches. Go to Bed Earlier You can catch up on your Zs by tagging on an extra hour of sleep every night. Do this by going to bed an hour earlier than usual, rather than sleeping an hour late. This is a much slower process than the typical weekend sleep-in. And, if you are chronically sleep deprived, it may take a few months to finally feel like you have achieved a healthy, restful, natural sleep pattern. But it will eventually happen. Take Short Naps Napping is often frowned upon in our constant onthe-go culture. But short naps can help you slowly work down your sleep debt and boost your energy during midday, the time when most people experience a serious slump in alertness and vigor. According to one study, taking a 30-minute daily nap promotes wakefulness and enhances performance and learning. But watch that you don't go much beyond the half hour, as longer, more frequent naps are associated with loss of productivity and even mortality in the elderly. Another study on the effects of napping involved some of the most sleep-deprived individuals on the planet – medical residents. Researchers followed 29 residents for 22 months. The nap group consisted of 18 residents, with the remaining 11 in a no-nap (control) group. At midday, both groups took performance tests to evaluate their cognitive function. The nap group then took 20-minute naps, while the control group stayed awake. Once the nap group awoke, all participants took the performance tests again. The results showed that, compared to the control group (whose cognitive functioning did not change between the two tests), the nap group's cognitive functioning and alertness improved, and their number of attention failures decreased. To get the best benefits out of napping, make sure they are short and well timed. Prime napping occurs between 1:00pm – 3:00pm. And limit your siesta to 30 minutes. Longer naps can cause sleep inertia – the grogginess you experience after awakening that can be difficult to shake off. Not to mention, napping for hours and hours during the day can upset your circadian rhythm, potentially leading to even more sleep debt. Bank some sleep If you anticipate a lack of shuteye in the near future, research has shown that you can actually bank some sleep hours prior to that period of deficit by going to bed an hour or two earlier than usual. One study aimed to learn whether extending sleep prior to a deficit could improve alertness and performance during the subsequent sleep restriction, and whether sleep extension impacts alertness and performance after recovery sleep. Two groups of participants were assigned to either an extended sleep group (10 hours) or habitual sleep group for one week, followed by one week of baseline, then seven days of sleep restriction (three hours of sleep), and finally five recovery days (eight hours of sleep). Researchers concluded that protective effects can accrue from extending the duration of sleep at night prior to a deficit. Specifically, they found that banking extra shuteye minimizes the declines in performance and alertness that result from loss of sleep, and enhances the speed with which the body recovers from that sleep loss. The moral here is to get a full night's sleep as often as humanly possible. It's that important. If you do find yourself becoming sleep deprived, there are techniques to get yourself onto a healthier, more restful sleep schedule. But trying to make up for severe sleep debt by spending your entire weekend in bed is not the way to do it. Abby's Magazine - September / October 2013 | Page 15