So, sleeping in on weekends may actually be the key to a longer life

There are few things in life more satisfying than crawling into bed on Friday night knowing you'll get a well-deserved lie-on in the morning. 

And aside from being our saving grace at the end of a busy week, it now seems that those Saturday AM snooze-a-thons could actually be prolonging our lives. 

According to a study by Swedish and US researchers, people under 65-years-old are at greater risk of death if they get less than five hours sleep on the weekends. 

Published in the Journal of Sleep Research, the study was based on data collected from 30,000 participants over a 13 year period. 

Results showed that people who get less that five hours sleep throughout the week, but enjoyed some extra shut-eye on the weekends, had no heightened mortality risk.

However, that risk is increased if a person is getting consistently sleeping less than five hours, or more than nine hours per night. 

Researchers took various factors into account, such as gender, education, body mass index, severe disease, use of hypnotics (like sleeping pills,) as well as things like smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, coffee intake and employment status.

As if we need another excuse to keep pressing that snooze button!