How Can You Resolve Sleep Debt?

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Today’s working professionals in shift work careers may not get sufficient sleep, leading to sleep debt. Work schedules can be the main factor but sleep disorders may also play a part.

Undiagnosed sleep disorders, along with family and social demands can make an acute sleep debt (a temporary short-term deficit, i.e. a few poor nights of sleep), into a chronic state.

A chronic sleep debt state is where a long-term, cumulative deficit builds over weeks or months, often leading to a situation where the body adapts to feeling tired, masking its true cognitive impairment and this state of tiredness becoming the ‘new normal’. Without adequate opportunity for recovery sleep allowing the body to restore both physiological and psychological levels of functionality, the sleep debt can build increasing the risk of accidents and poor health. [1-2-3]

Recovering from Sleep Debt

Recovering from significant or long-term sleep debt is not immediate and may take several weeks of maintaining a consistent nocturnal sleep schedule. With disciplined sleep habits, that both prioritise sleep duration and consistency, the negative effects of sleep debt - such as poor concentration, reduced productivity, and health risks - can gradually be reversed. [4]

Could relying on the average amount of nightly sleep during our typical rest periods mask the negative impacts of accumulated sleep debt - such as impaired health, reduced productivity, or changes in mood?

We may have the sleep opportunity during our time out of work for the recommended 7-9 hours, but the quality and regularity of this sleep may indeed be below a restorative value.

Trying to sleep when our biorhythm is pushing us to be awake, and adding in the environmental factors around us of daily life as others go about their circadian day can have real health consequences.

Sleep Studies

Studies show how our sleep is not very ‘forgiving’ to being moved around to more work convenient times. Researchers found when sleep is reduced to around 5 hours during rest times in a working block, and then extra sleep time was taken on the days off, there was still a metabolic cost to pay. Although sleep recovery, on paper, was planned in, this debt was still building leading to metabolic disorders of hypertension, diabetes and heart disease along with other diseases. [5-6-7]

Banking Sleep

Banking sleep and extending sleep to help maximise recovery from sleep debt.

The term ‘banking sleep’ relates to planning ahead on the days out of work to extend the period of habitual sleep duration ahead of the planned period of sleep restriction.

Studies have shown how extended sleep compared to habitual (average duration, timing and quality of sleep) ahead of the sleep restricted periods can lessen the effects on performance impairment. This extended sleep also aids quicker recovery during the extended sleep time post sleep disruption. [8]

Build Sleep Pressure

Starting early morning shifts, get up earlier the day before and build the sleep pressure!

To build enough sleep pressure for an early morning shift, it helps to wake early the day before and be active throughout the day prior to your early start, avoiding naps entirely. Sleep pressure - technically known as homeostatic sleep drive - refers to the body’s natural mechanism that increases the urge to sleep the longer you stay awake, helping regulate your sleep-wake cycle. By staying awake for longer periods, you make it easier to fall asleep at an earlier-than-usual hour, extending the sleep before the early hour alarm call the next morning. [9]

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is widely recognised as the "gold standard" first-line treatment for chronic insomnia, as recommended by leading medical bodies such as the American College of Physicians . This structured, non-pharmacological therapy works by targeting and changing problematic behaviours and thoughts related to sleep. Notably, CBT-I has demonstrated a 70–80% success rate in improving sleep, according to clinical studies published by the American College of Physicians, which lends strong credibility to its effectiveness.

References

[1] Rise. 2024. Sleep Deprivation Stages and Why Sleep Debt Matters More. https://www.risescience.com/blog/sleep-deprivation-stages#

[2] National Library of Medicine. 2022. Dynamics of recovery sleep from chronic sleep restriction. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10108639/#:~:text=Sleep%20debt%20is%20the%20difference%20between%20the,*%20The%20number%20of%20recovery%20opportunities%20available

[3] Better UP. 2023. Ultimate guide to sleep recovery for athletes. https://www.betterup.com/blog/sleep-recovery-for-athletes#:~:text=What%20is%20sleep%20debt?,creating%20a%20sleep%2Dfriendly%20environment.

[4] Health Line. 2024. The 5 Stages of Acute Sleep Deprivation. https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep-deprivation/sleep-deprivation-stages

[5] Harvard Health Publishing. 2019. Weekend catch-up sleep won’t fix the effects of sleep deprivation on your waistline. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/weekend-catch-up-sleep-wont-fix-the-effects-of-sleep-deprivation-on-your-waistline-2019092417861#:~:text=Our%20average%20hours%20of%20sleep,likely%20has%20real%20health%20consequences.

[6] Current Biology. 2019. Ad libitum Weekend Recovery Sleep Fails to Prevent Metabolic Dysregulation during a Repeating Pattern of Insufficient Sleep and Weekend Recovery Sleep. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdfExtended/S0960-9822(19)30098-3

[7] National Library of Medicine. 2016. Short sleep duration and health outcomes: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression. Short sleep duration and health outcomes: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression - PubMed

[8] National Library of medicine. 2022. Dynamics of recovery sleep from chronic sleep restriction. Dynamics of recovery sleep from chronic sleep restriction - PMC

[9] Ben Support for Life. 2026. Improving Sleep for Shift Workers. https://shorturl.at/cva8x