Who says you can’t rob death with an extra few hours of sleep? Brace yourselves, sleep-starved zombies. According to a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study from the European Society of Cardiology Congress (yeah, they're kind of a big deal), getting in some compensatory sleep over the sabbatical days could potentially shave your heart disease risk by a whole 20%. In what has to be the coziest experiment ever, over 90,000 Brits snoozed (or didn't) through the night while researchers snooped on their heart health.

But before you wave this study in the face of that preachy 'consistent sleep schedule' evangelist in your life, remember the words of Alicia Roth, Ph.D., and sleep know-it-all at Cleveland Clinic’s Sleep Disorders Center. Bottom line? Compensatory Zs are not your golden ticket to optimal health. The secret sauce, in fact, is all about consistency and adequacy.

Still needing a freak-out? Consider this: about one-third of adult Americans are setting themselves up for a nocturnal nightmare by sleeping less than the recommended seven hours a night. And while weekend sleep catch-ups are far from ideal, they’re certainly better than gambling away your health with chronic sleep deprivation. The House, in this case, being your cardiovascular health.

Nope, it’s not just our grannies going on about the importance of sleep. In 2022, the American Heart Association officially crowned sleep as the king of heart health, rubbing shoulders with nutrition, exercise and swinging the axe on nicotine.

At the end of the day, catching up on lost sleep over the weekend, while not the perfect solution, does have its benefits. Still, shooting for a regular bedtime and wake-up call should be your ace up the sleeve for a healthier heart. And don’t let the heart-healthy benefits of sleep lure you into social jet lag – the unpleasant sensation of waking up bleary-eyed on Monday, feeling like you've just arrived from a timezone far, far away.

So there you have it. Practice good sleep health: get enough shuteye, maintain a consistent schedule, and ensure quality rest. Your heart (and sanity) will pay dividends. After all, every tick-tock counts.