Evening chronotype, insufficient weekday sleep, and weekday-weekend gap in sleep times: What is really to blame for a reduction in self-perceived health among university students?

Reaction of the endogenous regulatory mechanisms to early weekday wakeups: a review of its popular explanations in light of model-based simulations

“…The gaps correlate with weekday sleep duration (or weekday time in bed), but since it is difficult to account for this correlation in a single regression analysis aimed at predicting health variables, weekday sleep duration is simply excluded from such analysis. We previously confirmed the significance of the association of a reduced weekday time in bed with poorer health of university students and additionally showed that the association of health with late sleep timing and the gaps between weekdays and weekends in sleep timing and duration can be fully explained by the correlation of the reduction of time in bed on weekdays with later sleep timing and larger gaps (Putilov et al, 2023). This is not a surprise in light of present simulations that, on one hand, pointed at the existence of deadweight sleep loss on weekdays, but, on the other hand, questioned the recovery nature of ad lib weekend sleep and the phase-shifting nature of the gaps between weekends and weekdays in sleep times.…”