Weekend catch-up sleep/Weekend oversleep among adolescents : current status and future problems

Abstract

  Approximately 25-84% of adolescents have complaints of sleepiness. The major cause of their sleepiness is insufficient sleep, and their perceived amount of required sleep is less in the first half of the school week while it increases in the second half. Adolescents might accumulate sleep debt across weekdays and reduce it during the weekend. The difference in sleep duration between the weekend (holidays and non-school days) and weekdays (school days) is termed weekend catch-up sleep (WeCUS) or weekend oversleep (WeOS), which reflects sleep debt. This review article describes the current status and future problems associated with WeCUS/WeOS among adolescents. The difference in mean sleep duration between the weekend and weekdays among young Japanese (10-19 years old) group increased recently and reached 1.3 hours in 2020. According to the published literature, WeCUS/WeOS is longer in females, increases with age, and is longer in those with an early school start time. However, results associating WeCUS/WeOS with the chronotype, depression, risky behaviors, suicidal ideation, sleep problems, body weight, academic performance, and sleepiness remain inconclusive. Non-school day sleep duration among junior and high school students in Japan is less than the assumed optimal sleep duration of 8.5 hours, therefore, the current WeCUS/WeOS among adolescents in Japan might be insufficient to improve their potential sleep debt. Since it has now been recognized that improving potential sleep debt is an important issue, developing effective solutions to help adolescents with chronic sleep debt, especially in Japan, is urgently needed.