Joe Rogan calls out Michelle Obama, Oprah DNC speeches on wealth inequality
Podcaster Joe Rogan accused TV personality Oprah Winfrey and former first lady Michelle Obama of brazen hypocrisy in their DNC speeches Thursday.
Oprah slammed former President Trump at the convention while saying the work of maintaining a democracy “requires standing up to life’s bullies” and describing how she has seen and sometimes been on the receiving end of “racism and sexism and income inequality and division.”
Shortly after, the Trump campaign posted a thank-you letter Winfrey wrote in 2000 suggesting that he would be a good president. “Too bad we’re not running for office,” Winfrey wrote. “What a team!”
Likewise, the former first lady spoke about how her mother showed her “the meaning of hard work and humility and decency,” and added, “She and my father didn’t aspire to be wealthy. In fact, they were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed. They understood that it wasn’t enough for their kids to thrive if everyone else around us was drowning.”
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But on Thursday, amid a conversation recalling how prominent public figures turned against Trump in recent years, Rogan mocked how both of these women have become fabulously wealthy in their own right.
“How about Oprah?” Rogan said. “Oprah was talking about her and Trump running together, and now she’s speaking to the DNC that he’s a threat to democracy and she’s up there talking about income inequality, like, ‘Hey lady… you’re rich as f—.’ I’m like, ‘How is that equal?’”
The podcaster then added, “And also when Michelle Obama was saying, you know, I think she was saying her mother or grandmother was always suspicious of people who took more than they needed, like, you are worth so much money. That’s so crazy. You did it on a civil servant’s salary which is insane.”
Rogan was not the only public figure to call out Oprah’s hypocrisy. The major media mogul’s denunciation of income inequality rang hollow to people who pointed out her current enormous net worth, which Forbes estimated is $3 billion.
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Conservative radio host Dana Loesch wrote, “Kinda weird for Oprah, with her Hawaiian estate and multiple homes, expensive wardrobes, frequent luxury vacations, etc., to talk about income inequality.”
Meanwhile, Trump War Room, the official account of former President Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, shared a clip of Michelle Obama’s speech and commented, “Michelle Obama says her parents ‘were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed.’ She has a net worth of $70 million and lives in a mansion in Martha’s Vineyard.”
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Experts point to simple reason they know VP Harris’ pledge to ‘enforce our laws’ is ‘insincere’
Vice President Kamala Harris made a 180-degree turn on her opinion about prosecuting illegal border crossings during her long-awaited first interview since becoming the Democratic Party’s official nominee for president.
CNN anchor Dana Bash questioned Harris Thursday about whether she still believed illegal border crossings should be prosecuted, something Harris indicated she was against while running her 2019 campaign to become president.
“I believe there should be consequence,” Harris told Bash. “We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally. … And let’s be clear, in this race, I’m the only person who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who traffic in guns, drugs and human beings. I’m the only person in this race who actually served a border state as attorney general to enforce our laws. And I would enforce our laws as president going forward.”
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Harris’ comments Thursday contrasted with what she has said and done in the past regarding illegal immigration, particularly when it comes to illegal border crossings.
Besides indicating during a nationally televised debate that she would not pursue people who have crossed the border illegally for prosecution, she told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2015 that “an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.” She also posted the claim on social media. And in a riff with the late Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain’s daughter, Meghan, during a 2019 episode of “The View,” Harris reiterated her stance.
“I would not make it a crime punishable by jail,” she said. “It should be a civil enforcement issue but not a criminal enforcement issue.”
As a U.S. senator, Harris sought to strip funding from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). And as California’s attorney general, she instructed local law enforcement not to adhere to ICE detainers when they request that someone who has committed a crime and crossed the border illegally be held until they can be taken into custody to initiate deportation procedures.
Harris has also compared ICE to the Ku Klux Klan.
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Fox News Digital spoke to two conservative immigration law experts who called her comments “insincere” and “for election purposes” only.
“If someone cares about enforcing our laws as they pertain to the border, you would think that they would be a part of and lead an administration that prosecutes sufficient offenses related to crossing the border unlawfully,” said Gene Hamilton, the director of America First Legal, a right-wing legal group founded by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
“The Department of Justice’s prosecution for border-related offenses are at rock bottom. They are lower than even the Obama years, and that’s saying something.”
Hamilton, who served as counselor to the attorney general at the Department of Justice under former President Trump, argued a key metric in determining how seriously an administration is taking border security is the number of illegal border crossings compared to the number of individuals deported.
Last year, there were 2.4 million illegal border crossings, according to Department of Justice data, Hamilton said.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department prosecuted around 20,000 of those violations.
“You know, the numbers — the numbers speak for themselves,” Hamilton argued. He also pointed out that in 2019, under Trump, there were fewer illegal border crossings than the country faced in 2023, but the Trump administration still prosecuted more than five times the number of illegal border crossers than the Biden-Harris administration in 2023.
“As she said last night in her interview, her values have not changed. She said that over and over again,” said Lora Ries, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center. “She is telling her base, ‘Look, don’t worry about what the campaign is saying right now. We just have to say that to try and get elected. But my values have not changed.'”
NBC REPORTER CALLS OUT KAMALA HARRIS FOR SAYING HER ‘VALUES HAVEN’T CHANGED’: ‘HER POSITIONS HAVE CHANGED’
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Ries slammed the Biden-Harris administration for “gaslighting” the American public but argued the Harris campaign “is taking it to another level” by denying Harris was tapped to be the border czar and pretending as if she is not in power and able to enact tougher measures at the border.
“She’s in power right now. If she truly meant it, she would do it now, and she’s not. But to pretend like you’re not in power and not in office right now is a higher level of gaslighting,” said Ries. “I think this is just, you know, for election purposes.”
Hamilton echoed that statement, calling Harris’ comments Thursday “insincere.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign repeatedly for comment but did not receive a response.
Knicks superstar confronts Mark Cuban right to his face over comment about parents
New York Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson had a score to settle with Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban on Thursday.
During a joint appearance on Brunson’s podcast “Roomates Show” with Knicks teammate Josh Hart, Cuban had to answer for comments that he made about the star point guard’s parents last year.
That summer, Brunson opted to leave the Mavericks to signed a four-year, $104 million contract with the Knicks in free agency. When Cuban was confronted about why his team allowed Brunson to leave, Cuban pointed fingers at the guard’s parents, Rick and Sandra Brunson.
“Where it went south was when Rick took over, when the parent took over, or parents took over,” Cuban told reporters in June 2023. Rick had worked under Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau in the past and just joined the Knicks’ staff in 2022.
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Brunson on Thursday made it a point to tell Cuban that he did not like those comments at the time.
“The only thing that I… didn’t like about the whole situation was when Mark said, ‘When the parents got involved, that’s when things got messy,” Brunson said. “So that was the one thing that I was like, I kinda was like, ‘Damn, that was a little jab.'”
Cuban then promptly apologized.
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“I apologize,” he said. “If I put you in a certain way, that wasn’t the intention. But it was hard to deal with. It was a unique negotiation in a lot of different ways.”
The Knicks ended up being penalized by the NBA for tampering in Brunson’s negotiations that year, forfeiting a 2025 second-round pick. However, the Brunson signing has yielded them one of the league’s top scorers and floor generals over the last two years. Brunson led New York to playoff series wins in each of the last two seasons, earning his first All-Star appearance and All-NBA second team nod last year.
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After averaging a career-best 28.7 points and 6.7 assists per game to finish fifth in league MVP voting last season, Brunson signed a four-year contract extension worth $156.5 million in July.
Meanwhile, Cuban sold his majority stake in the Mavericks last year to casino mogul Miriam Adelson and her family. The team, led by Luka Doncic and Brunson’s de facto replacement, Kyrie Irving, lost to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals in June.
“There’s definitely no hard feelings at all. But it’s always interesting when your dad and I walk by each other, you know, it’s just like he gives me the eye, I give him the eye, then we smile and then keep on walking, right? And so all is well and ends well…I’m happy for you, the King of New York, and I’m happy for us,” said Cuban.
Republican senator shuts down TV anchor for claiming Trump quashed border bill
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., claimed on Friday that the Biden administration was responsible for killing the border security bill, not former President Donald Trump.
During an appearance on CNN, Mullin disputed the idea that Trump publicly and privately attempted to quash the bill before it was even introduced.
Mullin disagreed with anchor Manu Raju, who suggested that Trump lobbied Senate and House members to prevent the bill from passing.
The Oklahoma senator claimed that Trump only became involved after the Biden administration refused to negotiate with Republicans.
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“Chuck Schumer didn’t one time reach out to Republicans and try to talk to us. They never had a working group together—,” Mullin said before he was cut off by Raju.
Raju asked about Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., the lead GOP negotiator for the Senate border security bill. Lankford, in February, urged critics to read the bill, arguing it would create a “faster and stronger system” of deportation and “flip the script” on Biden’s immigration policy.
However, he later called for open discussions and criticized Democrats for “politicizing” the bill.
Mullin said that Lankford had also expressed frustration about the bill because Democrats were doing “everything they could to kill it.” He also claimed that Democrats had closed discussions on the bill and turned it into a “take it or leave it” scenario.
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“What the left media has done, including yourself, they said it’s ‘The Lankford Bill.’ It wasn’t the Lankford Bill. Lankford was trying to negotiate on behalf of Republicans. The Democrats not one single time tried to actually negotiate with Republicans,” he said.
“So, President Trump didn’t kill it; the Biden administration killed it because they knew they wanted to try doing something because the administration has been awful on the border, and that hasn’t changed,” Mullin continued.
In February, Biden claimed Trump was sabotaging the border bill.
“Now, all indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor. Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically,” Biden said at the tiime. “So for the last 24 hours, he’s done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal. And looks like they’re caving.”
The border bill backed by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., failed test votes in February and May.
Senate Republicans previously called the bill a “sham” and criticized their Democratic counterparts for failing to take up a House-backed border bill that addresses Republican priorities, known as H.R. 2.
The White House did not respond to request for comment in time for publication.
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Leah Remini gets candid about why she’s divorcing husband after 21 years of marriage
Leah Remini and Angelo Pagán have decided to call it quits after 21 years of marriage.
The former couple shared a joint statement on social media and detailed the reasons they’re getting a divorce.
“Well, here we are. After 28 years together and 21 years of marriage, we have decided to file for divorce,” the lengthy Instagram post began.
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“This decision came after a lot of thought and care, and as hard as divorce is, we are approaching this with a positive outlook because we know it’s what’s best for us. We are proud of how we have worked through this together.”
The couple accompanied their statement with a throwback photo next to a picture of themselves in the present day.
“This decision came after a lot of thought and care, and as hard as divorce is, we are approaching this with a positive outlook because we know it’s what’s best for us. We are proud of how we have worked through this together.”
“Yes, we’re sad, and we’ve got some figuring out to do as we continue to move forward into our new normal—together still in many ways, and apart in some new ones,” the post continued.
Despite being “best friends” for many years and still gathering as a family, the pair listed reasons why they have decided to part ways.
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“To put it simply, we both changed, as people do, and we got used to playing roles that didn’t fit us anymore. After a lot of effort and consideration, we’ve decided to take this step, which reflects who we are today,” they added.
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“Our bond is still strong—it’s just evolved into something different. We think a marriage that lasted this long and created so many beautiful memories, especially raising our incredible daughter, is something to celebrate.”
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The post referred to their daughter, Sofia Bella. Remini and Pagán welcomed Sofia on June 16, 2004. Pagán has three additional sons from a previous relationship.
“From our perspective, this marriage was a huge success,” the statement continued. “And now, we’re looking forward to creating even more cherished moments—just in a different way.”
Remini and Pagán explained they wanted to be as “transparent” as possible, since their marriage had been in the public eye for years. The two actors were featured in special projects that aired on VH1 and had a reality show, “Leah Remini: It’s All Relative,” that ran for two seasons on TLC from 2014-15.
“We are sharing this unknown territory with you all as we take our first steps into this next stage of our lives publicly,” the couple said.
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They added that they want people to “have more access to different kinds of relationship stories and not feel so isolated in navigating the changes that millions of couples make every year.”
“We hope our journey can inspire others to see that relationships—whether they change or end—aren’t failures. We’ll keep sharing snippets of our lives as we navigate this new chapter. Love, Leah & Angelo,” the post concluded.
Remini and Pagán tied the knot in 2003 after they met at a Cuban club, El Floridita, in Los Angeles, where Pagán was performing in 1996.
Their announcement comes a week after longtime friend Jennifer Lopez additionally filed for divorce from Ben Affleck.
In May, Remini and Lopez reconnected after having a falling-out in 2022 over Affleck, according to Page Six.
The “King of Queens” actress warned Lopez to remember the reason she originally broke up with Affleck when they first dated in 2002: “Because he is selfish and is not fully committed as a partner,” a source said at the time.
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Remini did not attend Lopez and Affleck’s second wedding ceremony in Georgia.
Reps for Remini and Pagán did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Caitlin Clark records career-high in points, Fever blowout Sky for third consecutive win
WNBA rookie sensations Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese faced off for the fourth time this season on Friday.
The Fever’s 100-81 victory over the Chicago Sky secured Indiana’s third victory in the four-game series between the two teams during the regular season.
The Fever have now won their last three games, while the Sky have dropped five consecutive contests. The first matchups were decided by a total of 10 points with a pair of one-point wins for each team, while this one became a blowout.
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Reese had 10 points and 11 rebounds, breaking a tie with Tina Charles for rookie double-doubles with 23 and passing Sylvia Fowles for the Chicago season record. She also has a rookie record 399 rebounds.
The game drew a sellout crowd of 9,445 to Wintrust Arena on Barbie Night, which was a nod to Reese’s college nickname at LSU — the Bayou Barbie. NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, who has seemed to take on a mentorship role as it relates to Reese, also sat courtside on Friday night.
The four-time NBA champion is the president of basketball operations at Reebok and played a key role in Reese signing a name, image, and likeness (NIL) with the footwear company last October.
Before the game, Clark showed off some new Nike Kobe 6 sneakers. She then went on to deliver another strong performance. She finished the night with her 11th double-double of the year by recording 31 points and 12 assists. The point total marks a WNBA career-high for the star rookie.
Clark is the only player to ever have three games of at least 25 points and 10 rebounds in a season. She also remains on pace to break the overall assists record for a single season. Clark entered Friday’s game averaging 18 points, 8.1 assists, and 5.7 rebounds.
The Fever are 5-1 since the Olympic break.
“I think we just understand each other a lot better,” Clark said of the current stretch. “Having the chemistry and having the time to play with one another you just build confidence. I think you’re seeing that. … I’m proud of this group. We’re been sharing the ball, we’re taking good shots and that’s helping our transition game and it helps us on defense, too.”
Michaela Onyenwere scored 20 points to lead Chicago, which is 1-5 since the Olympic break. Lindsay Allen had 19 and Rachel Banham 14. The Sky were without Chennedy Carter, who missed her second-straight game because of health and safety protocols.
On Wednesday, the Fever snapped an 11-game skid in their series of matchups with the Connecticut Sun. The 84-80 win on Aug. 28 marked Indiana’s first victory against Connecticut since July 2021.
After the game, Clark and the rest of the Fever team had a chance to meet Biles and Olympic gold medalist track star Gabby Thomas. Biles and Thomas smiled, hugged and posed for photos with the basketball pros.
“The squad was ecstatic to meet Simone Biles and Gabby Thomas after our win at @GainbridgeFH . the reactions,” the Fever wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Biles later took to social media and expressed her excitement about the growth of women’s sports.
“EVERYONE WATCHES WOMENS SPORTS so happy to be able to go support! My first of many WNBA games,” she wrote on X.
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The Fever return to action on Sunday when they take on the Dallas Wings. The Sky also play on Sept. 1 in Minnesota.
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Police officer ‘executed’ in targeted attack, two others cops injured, chief says
The Dallas Police Department provided an emotional update after Officer Darron Burks was shot and killed, saying that the former high school teacher was “executed” while in the line of duty.
In a press conference Friday, Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said that the department had lost a “brother” and a “hero” following the shooting.
“As a department and as a family, we are devastated,” Garcia said. “Last night we lost a brother, a hero. Officer Darron Burks was a son, a nephew, a friend to many, and he was senselessly and tragically murdered in the line of duty.”
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The shooting, which happened around 10 p.m. Thursday night near the Oak Cliff Community Center, killed Burks and wounded two other officers. The suspected gunman, identified as 30-year-old Corey Cobb-Bey, was killed in a shootout with police after a highway chase.
“We came close to losing other officers,” Garcia said. “Officers who put their lives on the line to protect their brother, and it is by the grace of God that they are still with us today.”
The chief of police said that the officers were “targeted” by Cobb-Bey.
Our officers were targeted by nothing more than the uniforms that they wear.
“Our officers were targeted by nothing more than the uniforms that they wear and for the brave and honorable job that they do,” he said. “I want to be clear here, the word ambush has been thrown around in the last 24 hours. That is not what happened here. Officer Burks was executed.”
Garcia revealed that Cobb-Bey approached Burks and struck up a conversation, while recording the encounter on a cellphone, before pulling out a handgun and opening fire. Police said that they have no evidence that Burks and Cobb-Bey knew each other.
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“Cobb-Bey approached Burks and talked with him briefly at the driver’s side of the window as he recorded the encounter with a cellphone,” he said. “The suspect then pulled out a handgun and executed Officer Burks as he sat in his vehicle.”
Police said they got a 911 call about an officer in distress. Responding officers found Burks in his marked patrol vehicle critically injured.
At 10:11 p.m., Senior Corporal Jamie Farmer pulled into the parking lot after responding to a call for backup. Farmer was met with gunfire from Cobb-Bey. When Farmer returned fire, Cobb-Bey grabbed the shotgun and fired at Farmer, hitting him in the leg.
A minute later, Senior Corporal Karissa David arrived on the scene.
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The Cobb-Bey ran toward David, shooting at her multiple times while she exited her vehicle.
David was shot in the face, according to police.
The officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect, and two additional officers were shot.
The suspect was shot and killed at the end of a high-speed police chase on Interstate 35 from Dallas to Lewisville.
Burks was a former high school math teacher at the Texas Can Academy’s Pleasant Grove Campus, whose passion for helping his community led him to enroll in the police academy, FOX 4 reported, citing sources.
“Last year, Officer Burks bravely decided to leave the field of education to serve our city as a member of the Dallas Police Department. His commitment to serving others, both as a teacher and as a police officer, exemplified his dedication to making a positive impact on the lives of those around him,” wrote Tina Shaw, the principal at Texas Can Academy’s Pleasant Grove Campus.
One former student, Adrian Coleman, said that Burks mentored troubled youths.
“As a troubled youth, he made sure to instill knowledge and provide me with the tools I needed to graduate, to be a man out here in this world,” Coleman told the local outlet. “I am very thankful for him and the time he spent with me.”
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A rookie police officer, Burks first entered the Dallas Police Academy last year.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Dallas Police Department for comment.
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Study finds lazy weekend habit could have surprising benefits for your heart health
For many people who wake up early to attend school or work during the week, lack of sleep is a common complaint.
In a recent Gallup poll, 57% of adults said they would “feel better if they got more sleep,” while only 42% said they get “as much sleep as they need.”
Sleeping late on the weekends is a natural response for some — and new research has found that catching up on shuteye in this way can have surprising benefits for heart health.
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At the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2024 in London, which will take place Aug. 30 through Sept. 2, Chinese cardiovascular researchers will present findings from a U.K. Biobank study, which analyzed sleep data from 90,903 individuals over a median of 14 years.
A total of 19,816 (21.8%) of these participants reported being sleep-deprived, getting less than seven hours of sleep per night, while the rest experienced occasional inadequate sleep, according to a press release on the ESC website.
Those who caught up on the most sleep over the weekends were found to have a 20% lower risk of developing heart disease — including ischemic heart disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and stroke — compared to those with the least sleep.
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This was based on analysis of hospitalization records and death registry information, the release stated.
Study co-author Yanjun Song of the State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease at Fuwai Hospital, National Centre for Cardiovascular Disease, in Beijing, China, confirmed in the release that “sufficient compensatory sleep is linked to a lower risk of heart disease.”
He added, “The association becomes even more pronounced among individuals who regularly experience inadequate sleep on weekdays.”
Co-author Zechen Liu, who belongs to the same hospital, commented in the release, “Our results show that for the significant proportion of the population in modern society that suffers from sleep deprivation, those who have the most ‘catch-up’ sleep [on] weekends have significantly lower rates of heart disease than those with the least.”
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Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, said the new research is “revealing.”
“Although it’s not a double-blinded prospective randomized trial, it shows a significant decrease in the risk of heart disease in a large group who slept more on weekends,” Siegel, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News Digital.
Making up for “sleep debt” on weekends is restorative, the doctor said, allowing the brain to purge itself of toxins.
“It is recuperative with overall less stress hormone release, which impacts the heart favorably,” Siegel added.
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Dr. Wendy Troxel, PhD, a senior behavioral and social scientist at RAND Corporation in Park City, Utah, told Fox News Digital that these findings should be considered “preliminary,” as they were presented at a conference instead of in a peer-reviewed publication.
Although the nature of the study gives “limited details about the study methodology,” Troxel commented that the findings are “consistent with robust literature demonstrating the health consequences of chronic insufficient sleep.”
“In addition, they suggest that some level of weekend ‘catch-up’ sleep may offset some of these consequences,” she said.
“However, a strong word of caution is warranted, as there is also substantial evidence to show that irregular sleep schedules, including excessive weekend catch-up sleep, also has health consequences.”
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The expert reiterated that this data should not give people the “false sense” of being able to make up for sleep deprivation by simply sleeping in on the weekends.
“The best advice still remains — people need to prioritize getting adequate sleep duration on weekdays and weekends,” she said, recommending a “relatively consistent” sleep-wake schedule every day.
She added, “If you are going to sleep in, try to keep your wake-up time within an hour or two of your usual wake-up time.”
The study authors recognized that a majority of the respondents’ sleep habits did not meet the criteria for sleep deprivation, which is a limitation of the study.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for further comment.