Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Dec;9(6):801-820.
doi: 10.1016/j.sleh.2023.07.016. Epub 2023 Sep 7.

The importance of sleep regularity: a consensus statement of the National Sleep Foundation sleep timing and variability panel

Tracey L Sletten  1 , Matthew D Weaver  2 , Russell G Foster  3 , David Gozal  4 , Elizabeth B Klerman  5 , Shantha M W Rajaratnam  6 , Till Roenneberg  7 , Joseph S Takahashi  8 , Fred W Turek  9 , Michael V Vitiello  10 , Michael W Young  11 , Charles A Czeisler  12
Affiliations

The importance of sleep regularity: a consensus statement of the National Sleep Foundation sleep timing and variability panel

Tracey L Sletten et al. Sleep Health. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: To develop and present consensus findings of the National Sleep Foundation sleep timing and variability panel regarding the impact of sleep timing variability on health and performance.

Methods: The National Sleep Foundation assembled a panel of sleep and circadian experts to evaluate the scientific evidence and conduct a formal consensus and voting procedure. A systematic literature review was conducted using the NIH National Library of Medicine PubMed database, and panelists voted on the appropriateness of 3 questions using a modified Delphi RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method with 2 rounds of voting.

Results: The literature search and panel review identified 63 full text publications to inform consensus voting. Panelists achieved consensus on each question: (1) is daily regularity in sleep timing important for (a) health or (b) performance? and (2) when sleep is of insufficient duration during the week (or work days), is catch-up sleep on weekends (or non-work days) important for health? Based on the evidence currently available, panelists agreed to an affirmative response to all 3 questions.

Conclusions: Consistency of sleep onset and offset timing is important for health, safety, and performance. Nonetheless, when insufficient sleep is obtained during the week/work days, weekend/non-work day catch-up sleep may be beneficial.

Keywords: Catch-up sleep; Circadian misalignment; Health; Performance; Sleep patterns.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflict of Interest Dr. Weaver reports consulting with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), and the University of Pittsburgh, and grant support from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Sletten and Dr. Weaver report personal fees from the NSF during the conduct of the study. Dr. Klerman reports grants from the National Institutes of Health, other from Federal Aviation Administration; grants from Havard University; grants from the Massachusetts Insitute of Technology, during consulting for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation, Circadian Therapeutics, NSF, Sleep Research Society Foundation, Yale University Press and travel support from European Biological Rhythms Society. Dr Klerman’s partner owns Chronsulting. Dr. Takahashi is an Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and a co-founder and an SAB member of Synchronicity Pharma. Dr. Rajaratnam has unpaid appointments at the Cooperative Research Centre for Alertness, Safety and Productivity, Australia, and the Sleep Health Foundation. Dr. Rajaratnam is also supported by grants from Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Philips Respironics, Cephalon, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, and Shell. Dr. Rajaratnam has received other support from Optalert, Compumedics, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Circadian Therapeutics, through his institution. He is a member of the NSF Sleep Timing Variability Consensus Panel, for which he was paid an honorarium through his institution. Dr. Czeisler serves as the incumbent of an endowed professorship provided to the Harvard Medical School by Cephalon, Inc. and reports institutional support for a Quality Improvement Initiative from Delta Airlines and Puget Sound Pilots; education support to the Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine and support to Brigham and Women’s Hospital from Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC, Inc., Philips Respironics, Inc., Optum, and ResMed, Inc.; research support to Brigham and Women’s Hospital from Axome Therapeutics, Inc., Dayzz Ltd., Peter Brown and Margaret Hamburg, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi SA, Casey Feldman Foundation, Summus, Inc., Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., the Abbaszadeh Foundation, and the CDC Foundation; educational funding to the Sleep and Health Education Program of the Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine from ResMed, Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, Ltd., and Vanda Pharmaceuticals; personal royalty payments on sales of the Actiwatch-2 and Actiwatch-Spectrum devices from Philips Respironics, Inc; personal consulting fees from Axsome, Inc., the Bryte Foundation, Deep, Inc., and Vanda Pharmaceuticals; honoraria from the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC, for the Thomas Roth Lecture of Excellence at SLEEP 2022 from the Massachusetts Medical Society for a New England Journal of Medicine Perspective article, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, and the NSF for serving as the Chair of the Sleep Timing and Variability Consensus Panel, lecture fees from Teva Pharma Australia PTY Ltd., Merck, Sharpe and Dohme, Oregon Health Sciences University, and Emory University and for serving as an Advisory Board Member for the Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, the Klarman Family Foundation, and the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. Dr. Czeisler has received personal fees for serving as an expert witness on a number of civil matters, criminal matters, and arbitration cases, including those involving the following commercial and government entities: Amtrak; Bombardier, Inc.; C&J Energy Services; Dallas Police Association; Delta Airlines/Comair; Enterprise Rent-A-Car; FedEx; Greyhound Lines, Inc./Motor Coach Industries/FirstGroup America; PAR Electrical Contractors, Inc.; Puget Sound Pilots; the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department; Schlumberger Technology Corp.; Union Pacific Railroad; United Parcel Service; and Vanda Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Czeisler has received travel support from Merck, Sharpe and Dohme; equity interest in Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Whoop, Inc., and Signos, Inc.; and institutional educational gifts to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital from Johnson & Johnson, Mary Ann, and Stanley Snider via Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Alexandra Drane, DR Capital, Harmony Biosciences, LLC, San Francisco Bar Pilots, Whoop, Inc., Harmony Biosciences LLC, Eisai Co., Ltd., Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Sleep Number Corp., Apnimed, Inc., Avadel Pharmaceuticals, Bryte Foundation, f.lux Software, LLC, and the Stuart F. and Diana L. Quan Charitable Fund. Dr. Czeisler's interests were reviewed and are managed by the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Mass General Brigham in accordance with their conflict-of-interest policies.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources