In our society, sleep has ceased to be a passive state and is now understood as the most profitable investment in health. However, official science warns that we are sabotaging this process with weekend habits that the body cannot compensate for.
Sara Marín, microbiota expert and popularizer, has pointed out a common mistake: trying to “recover” hours of sleep by waking up late on Saturday or Sunday. According to the specialist, if the usual rhythm is drastically altered, the body needs up to 72 hours to stabilize its internal clocks again.
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“People think that they are going to repair their sleep, and they don’t recover. By sleeping four more hours that day you are not going to recover the sleep of the week; what you are doing is screwing up your sleep,” Marín states emphatically. This time inconsistency causes what doctors call circadian rhythm imbalance, affecting not only rest, but also the immune and metabolic system.
The conflict between insulin and melatonin
Another of the pillars of healthy rest is food. Marín highlights a direct hormonal conflict: “Insulin and melatonin are enemies; if one is there, the other is not there.”
Eating dinner later than 9:00 p.m. forces the body to prioritize digestion, raising body temperature and insulin levels, which blocks the secretion of melatonin, the hormone responsible for initiating deep sleep.
Why the brain needs sleep
The urgency of these recommendations is based on scientific discoveries from 2025 and 2026 about the glymphatic system. During the deep sleep phase (N3), the brain activates a “night-washing” mechanism using the cerebrospinal fluid.
This process eliminates toxic proteins such as beta-amyloid, linked to Alzheimer’s. Not getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep impedes this cleansing, resulting in “brain fog” and long-term cognitive decline.
In addition to cleansing toxins, current neuroscience describes sleep as an essential “video editor” for mental health:
- Memory architecture: During REM sleep, the brain transfers data from the hippocampus (short term) to the cortex (long term).
- Emotional regulation: Sleeping well allows the limbic system to “reset,” reducing the intensity of stressful experiences and preventing chronic anxiety.
Sleeping well is possible
To optimize rest, health authorities in Spain recommend following strict light and temperature management guidelines:
- The Amber Light Rule: Eliminate blue lights from screens after 9:00 p.m., as they block melatonin.
- The Cooling Method: Keep the room between 18°C and 20°C. The body needs to lower its core temperature by up to 1.5°C to enter deep sleep.
- Caffeine window: It is recommended to avoid its consumption after 2:00 p.m. due to its long half-life in the body.
As medical evidence concludes, sleep is not a waste of time, but rather the greatest restorative and anabolic agent of the human being. In the words of the experts: “It is the superpower that allows you to perform at 100% while the rest try to function at 50%.”