More naps, higher risk? Research links daytime sleep to health warnings in aging adults

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Excessive daytime napping is associated with higher mortality risk in older adults, according to new research from Mass General Brigham.

Between 20% and 60% of older adults take naps, according to the researchers.

While occasional naps have been shown to be refreshing, frequent or prolonged daytime napping in this group has been associated with avariety of health concerns.

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The study followed 1,338 older adults for up to 19 years, tracking the timing and duration of theirdaytime napping habitsusing a wrist-worn tracker.They then examined all-cause mortality rates.

Tired woman taking a nap on the sofa in the living room

Excessive daytime napping is associated with higher mortality risk in older adults, according to new research from Mass General Brigham.(iStock)

Taking longer, more frequent naps — or napping in the morning — were all associated with increased mortality risk and may beearly warning signsof underlying health decline, according to a press release from Mass Brigham.

Morning naps were linked to about a 30% increase in mortality risk, and each additional hour of daily napping was associated with about a 13% higher risk, the study found.Each additional nap per day increased risk by roughly 7%.

linked to neurodegeneration, cardiovascular diseases and even greater morbidity, but many of those findings rely on self-reported napping habits and leave out metrics like when and how regular those naps are,” lead author Chenlu Gao, Ph.D., an investigator in the department of anesthesiology at the Mass General Brigham, said in the press release.

Senior man asleep at home on his sofa with his pet dog curled up next to him.

Morning naps were linked to about a 30% increase in mortality risk, and each additional hour of daily napping was associated with about a 13% higher risk.(iStock)

“Our study is one of the first to show an association between objectively measured nap patterns and mortality and suggests there is immense clinical value in tracking napping patterns to catchhealth conditionsearly.”

There were some limitations to the study.Because it was observational in design, it only showed that napping may reflect underlying illness but did not prove that it caused mortality.

brain activity.This means rest could be misclassified as sleep in some cases.

“Now that we know there is a strong correlation between napping patterns and mortality rates, we can make the case to implement wearable daytime nap assessments to predict health conditions and prevent further decline.”(iStock)

Also, because the study population was limited to older, White adults in the Midwest, the results may not apply to other groups.

“It is important to note that this is correlation, not causation.Excessive napping is likely to indicate underlying disease, chronic conditions, sleep disturbances orcircadian dysregulation,” said Gao.

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The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and affiliated research programs.

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