Social Jet Lag and Catching Up on Sleep

The average person needs 7 to 8 hours of sleep, but with our busy lives we’re not always able to get that kind of sleep every night. “Some people think that if you have been out late, to sleep later, but then that becomes kind of like a social jet lag,” said Lee Health Sleep Medicine Physician Dr. Jose Colon. “The more consistent that you can be, the better that your sleep quality is going to be.”

If you’re unable to get the recommended amount of sleep, “Catching up on sleep is very important, but there is a way that we naturally do it,” said Dr. Colon. Your body naturally behaves differently when you haven’t gotten enough sleep. “If you do have a little period of sleep deprivation, the next time that you go to sleep, you get into the deep stages in your sleep earlier, you stay into these deep stages of sleep longer and sometimes that deep sleep is even deeper. So we have an inherent mechanism to where we catch up on sleep.”

Sleeping in late may cause more harm than good because it can mess with your bodies internal clock. “When it comes to catching up on sleep, the best thing you can do back to sleep at your normal bedtime and not sleeping later in the morning,” said Dr. Colon. Tips to help you sleep better and feel better.

Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Lee Health - Caring People. Inspiring Care.