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

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 a variety 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 their daytime napping habits using a wrist-worn tracker. They then examined all-cause mortality rates.

Taking longer, more frequent naps — or napping in the morning — were all associated with increased mortality risk and may be early warning signs of 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%.

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“Excessive napping later in life has been 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. 

“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 catch health conditions early.”

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.

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The research did not take into account any contributing health conditions, and the sleep trackers only measured movement and not brain activity. This means rest could be misclassified as sleep in some cases.

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 or circadian dysregulation,” said Gao.

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“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.”

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