Why getting TOO MUCH sleep at the weekend can harm your brain

Catching up on sleep might seem like a good idea at the time if you didn’t get a lot the night before, but a new study says being inconsistent actually leads to worse cognition.

The research by Baylor University found having a limited amount of sleep one night and then a long snooze the next harmed attention span and creativity.

They studied the sleeping habits of a group of interior design students who had several upcoming university project deadlines.

“The more variability they showed in their night-to-night sleep, the worse their cognition declined across the week," said study co-author Michael Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor's Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory and assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences.

Sleeping the same amount each night was much better for your brain than duration, the researchers discovered. “Consistent habits are at least as important as total length of sleep,” explained Scullin.

Irregular sleeping patterns damaged what’s known as executive attention - or “working” memory - which is the ability to retain memories for a short time while doing a separate task. 

Executive attention is crucial for intense focus for planning, correcting errors and making decisions.

The study also found erratic sleep harmed creativity. "What we call 'creativity' is often people's ability to see the link between things that at first glance seem unrelated,” said Scullin.

The students’ tendency to alternate between several days of poor sleep - 79 per cent of those in the study slept fewer than seven hours at least three nights a week - followed by a night of 10 hours or more sleep, led to a decline in attention and creativity.

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