What a "Sleep Debt" is and How to Calculate it

Many Americans have more than a financial debt in their lives - they have what experts call a "sleep debt."

When you have a sleep debt to repay it means you have consistently gotten less than what you need through the week and have accumulated a "debt." If you sleep only, say, six and a half hours, you still owe one and a half hours. If you do this for five nights in a row, you have lost an entire night's sleep. You will then need extra sleep over the next few days to replenish your sleep debt.

To calculate your sleep debt, here is a simple test:
Starting on a Sunday, do not drink alcohol or caffeine; do not smoke; go to sleep about the same time every night; and get an uninterrupted seven to eight hours of sleep for the next six nights. Then, on Saturday morning, sleep in. See how long your body will let you sleep. If you sleep longer than you did during the week -- then you have a sleep debt. So you should consider getting more sleep each night to replenish that sleep debt.