The biggest mistake you made this weekend has nothing to do with who you got off with

Long lie-ins are an unparalleled weekend treat.

Everyone knows that a few blissful extra hours with your head on a pillow are better than chocolate, sex and The Great British Bake Off.

This is accepted, stone-cold, scientific fact.

Except, it's not helping you in the long run - sleep researchers are increasingly coming to the conclusion that lie-ins, though tempting, actually make you more tired.

Bjørn Bjorvatn, a Norwegian sleep researcher at the University of Bergen, told NRK earlier in the month that lie-ins were almost always a bad idea.

You should get up and go to bed at about the same time every day.

Do not sleep in late on weekends. Do not have a lie in. If you get up at 12pm on the weekend, it will take time for your rhythm to adjust back.

This has been reiterated by other sleep researchers, like Susanna Jernelöv, a psychologist and sleep researcher at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, who told The Local:

It’s partly because of our circadian rhythm, so when you sleep in later, it’s like giving yourself a bit of jet-lag and jet-lag makes you less bright and perky.

These aren't the only health issues associated with a lie-in.

A study by the University of Cambridge also followed 10,000 people between the ages of 42 and 81 for almost a decade.

The study found that those who slept for the longest time per session were 46 per cent more likely to have a stroke than average sleepers.

HT The Local

More: Why your morning lie-in could be bad for your health