Vacation is a much-anticipated time for everyone: a period to relax, enjoy the freedom from commitments, travel, explore, and recharge. However, it is often during this time that our sleep habits go out of control, affecting the quality of rest and, consequently, health.
The sleep medicine specialist, Jessica Polese, warns that the lack of routine during vacations can disrupt the biological clock. “Without fixed commitments, many people end up sleeping late, waking up later, and taking naps during the day. This apparent freedom can result in poor sleep habits and harm health,” she explains.
According to her, sleep works in cycles — light, deep, and REM (rapid eye movement) — and losing specific stages of these cycles can interfere with the quality of rest. "Although you can compensate for some hours by sleeping later, the quality of lost sleep is never fully recovered. This can take days or even weeks to adjust and impact cognitive performance, such as attention, memory, and reasoning,” she warns.
The specialist suggests that, even though there may be lost nights during vacations, or a shift from nighttime sleep — which is ideal — to daytime sleep, one should try to monitor themselves to avoid turning a period of relaxation into fatigue. “The norm during this period is breaks of 10 or 15 days, and it is important for individuals who will not follow sleep hygiene to try to schedule a few days before returning to work to recover,” she states, but the doctor points out: “The right thing is to sleep well and at night, respecting the circadian cycle that is governed by changes in light, from the darkness of night to the light of day, and regulates the body’s hormonal levels and the state of sleep and wakefulness,” she emphasizes.
Sleeping well goes far beyond feeling rested the next day. During sleep, the brain processes information, consolidates memories, and strengthens neural connections, as well as boosting the immune system and preventing diseases.
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