What is Sleep Debt?
A “sleep debt” is a common term that refers to the amount of sleep you get that is less than the amount of sleep you need. The way we generally understand it is that over time, a “debt” forms where you need to “catch up” on sleep to be healthy again.
To put it a different way:
- Your body requires a certain about of sleep, which is different depending on your age
- As you get less sleep than required, you become sleep deprived
- This sleep deprivation causes a “debt” which you have to “pay” by sleeping more than the required amount
Sleep debts are extremely important to correctly understand, because there are common misconception about what a sleep debt is and how you “repay” it. Most people are under the false assumption that they can “repay” their sleep debt much like you repay any monetary debt: in large sums. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work this way.