258. Does Catching Up on Sleep Actually Work? The Science Explained

0:00What if you're already sleeping seven or eight hours a night and you're still not getting the full benefit of that sleep?

0:05For years, the conversation around sleep has been almost entirely about duration, and that data is still completely valid, but it's incomplete.

0:13The research now tells us with extraordinary clarity that the consistency with when you sleep matters just as much as how long you sleep.

0:20You could be sleeping eight hours a night and still be dramatically increasing your cardiovascular risk simply because you're sleeping those eight hours at different times each day.

0:28Sleep optimization is comprehensive.

0:31Fixing one piece of it won't make the whole system function the way it should.

0:35A series of major studies published in the last two years has brought a second variable into sharp focus.

0:40And it turns out this variable may be just as important as how long you sleep.

0:44That variable is a few months ago, we released a short episode on sleep, and the response was something I didn't fully anticipate.