Can you reverse your "sleep debt" with naps? A Baltimore doctor weighs in

BALTIMORE -- You know the feeling: sleep-deprived and craving rest, yawning and groggy from another night of little sleep

"I'm 72 years old and I definitely can't function if I don't get any sleep." One Baltimore local told WJZ. "It stresses your body it makes you irritable, it makes you dysfunctional, you are sort of walking around in a fog."

At times it's a fog even caffeine can't fix.

"Oh gosh recently, I get a solid six [hours], I shoot for that eight, but I'm clocking in six steady," another resident said. "Every now and then I build up sleep debt, and then I recoup, I get a day where I'm just like done."

So, can you recover from sleep debt and "make it up" later?

Cardiologist Dr. Carlos Ince from Mercy Medical Center says not really.

"I don't think it helps," he said.

According to the National Institutes of Health, sleep deprivation is when:

• You don't get enough sleep.

• You sleep at the wrong time of day.

• You don't sleep well or get all the different types of sleep your body needs.

• You have a sleep disorder that prevents you from getting enough sleep or causes poor-quality sleep.

It's why Dr. Ince says a nap is not a fool-proof solution to resolving sleep deprivation

"I think some of the things you have to do is, one, not nap during the day," he said. "I find a lot of people like those that are retired, and they claim they have a hard time sleeping at night because they fall asleep during the course of the day."

Even so, quality sleep is hard to come by

"I don't get enough sleep, I think we should get on average five hours of sleep but I'm like two maybe two, if I'm lucky, three."

Many accumulate sleep debt with interest, and never catch up.

"Sleep is a priority," Dr. Ince said. "There are priorities that we all need to make in our lives and one of those has to be sleep."