i heard it's something like, for every 2 hours of sleep you lose you only need one to make up. so, if you need 8 hours every night but 3 nights in a row you only get 6 hours, you only need to sleep 11 hours to get to make up for it.
as i type this my cat has her front feet on my left arm, her back feet on my right arm, and is head butting my hand hard enough to knock it off the keyboard.