--- title: Sleep Loss Can Cause Brain Damage, Study Says description: Making up for lost sleep on the weekends doesn't help canonical: https://time.com/30238/study-sleep-loss-can-cause-brain-damage/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-19T15:03:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:01.927Z article:section: Health og:title: Sleep Loss Can Cause Brain Damage, Study Says og:description: Making up for lost sleep on the weekends doesn't help og:url: https://time.com/30238/study-sleep-loss-can-cause-brain-damage/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6da26a6b1ad14fa/6986846a13c79f5a47190eaa/98162206.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: woman sleeping og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sleep Loss Can Cause Brain Damage, Study Says twitter:description: Making up for lost sleep on the weekends doesn't help twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6da26a6b1ad14fa/6986846a13c79f5a47190eaa/98162206.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Study: Sleep Loss Can Cause Brain Damage  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Mar 19, 2014 3:03 PM UTC  Portrait of woman sleeping in bed Portrait of woman sleeping in bedGetty Images  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Mar 19, 2014 3:03 PM UTC Missing sleep may lead to brain damage, according to new research [published](http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News%5FReleases/2014/03/veasey/) in the Journal of Neuroscience on Tuesday. Many assume that naps and sleeping in on weekends can help you catch up on your “sleep debt,” but that strategy won’t fix the damage you’ve already done to your brain, says neuroscientist Sigrid Veasey from the University of Pennsylvania. Veasey and her colleagues studied mice who were submitted to a sleep schedule similar to that of shift workers. They slept for short periods during inconsistent hours. The researchers found that sleeping for only brief periods of time caused massive brain damage: the mice lost 25 percent of the neurons in their locus coeruleus, the section of their brain associated with alertness and cognitive function. The scientists believe that when the mice slept inconsistently, their newer cells would create more sirtuin type 3, a protein meant to energize and protect the mice. But after several days of missing sleep, as a shift worker might, the protein creation fell off and cells began to die off at a faster pace. “This is the first report that sleep loss can actually result in a loss of neurons,” Veasey said in a [statement](http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News%5FReleases/2014/03/veasey/) on the University of Pennsylvania website. The team plans to study the brains of deceased shift workers next to see if they show similar brain damage. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/30238/study-sleep-loss-can-cause-brain-damage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/30238/study-sleep-loss-can-cause-brain-damage/"},"headline":"Study: Sleep Loss Can Cause Brain Damage","datePublished":"2014-03-19T15:03:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:01.927Z","description":"Inconsistent sleep patterns may be hurting your brain, and making up for lost sleep on the weekends doesn't help, according to new research. “This is the first report that sleep loss can actually result in a loss of neurons,” neuroscientist Sigrid Veasey says","url":"https://time.com/30238/study-sleep-loss-can-cause-brain-damage/","keywords":["Sleep","Living"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6da26a6b1ad14fa/6986846a13c79f5a47190eaa/98162206.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6da26a6b1ad14fa/6986846a13c79f5a47190eaa/98162206.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"woman sleeping","caption":"woman sleeping","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/sleep/","name":"Sleep"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/30238/study-sleep-loss-can-cause-brain-damage/","name":"Study: Sleep Loss Can Cause Brain Damage"}}]}] ```