Your napping habthems might be hinting at a lot about your health. Over the last few years, researchers have connected daytime snoozes to everything from high blood pressure to earlier death. And now, they’re linking it to dementia, a condition that affects 6.9 million people nationwide and will likely double by 2060.
Adults over 65 who took frequent and unintentional daytime naps (i.e. dozing at your desk or in front of the TV, oops!) were more likely to develop dementia than those who didn’t nod off during the day, the new study found.
Below, neurologists and sleep experts explain the nuances of the findings and weigh in on the big question: To nap or not to nap?
What did the study find?
The study, which was published in The Journals of Gerontology, recruited 995 older adults 65 and up who did not have dementia and gleaned their napping data from a national health and aging survey. Then they followed them up for 10 years to see how many developed dementia over that time.
After accounting for several demographic, health, and sleep condition-related factors, researchers found that older adults who napped frequently or unintentionally had a higher risk of developing dementia. Those who napped frequently—meaning, most days or every day—had a 48% higher risk, while those who napped unintentionally had a 39% higher risk. Unintentional napping (which was defined as falling asleep without meaning to or having some naps that were both planned and unplanned) was highlighted likely because it could reflect excessive daytime sleepiness or early neurological changes associated with dementia, explains Shelby Harris, Psy.D., a board-certified behavioral sleep medicine psychologist and specialist with BetterSleep.
Researchers also looked at how long participants napped—over or under 30 minutes—and assessed how the length affected their risk. They found shorter naps were associated with a 40% higher risk of dementia compared with those who didn’t nap at all. However, when researchers excluded participants who developed dementia within the first five years of follow-up, the association weakened and no longer was statistically significant. “This suggests that short naps may sometimes reflect early changes related to dementia rather than directly contribute to its development,” says Harris.
How naps may be linked to dementia
Our experts say more research is needed to fully understand the potential connection between napping and cognitive decline. They also stress that these findings don’t mean naps are inherently harmful.
“The study cannot determine whether daytime napping contributes to dementia or is an early sign of neurological changes already underway,” says Harris. “Frequent or unintentional napping may reflect changes in sleep-wake regulation that occur before dementia is diagnosed. If napping is a symptom rather than a cause, simply avoiding it would not necessarily reduce dementia risk.”
As Hanul Bhandari, M.D., a double board-certified sleep medicine specialist and neurologist with New Waters Recovery, describes it, there’s always been “a bit of a chicken-and-egg” question with poor sleep and the development of dementia—in that it’s hard to tease out what came first.
What’s more, there are lots of reasons why people nap—intentionally and unintentionally—and many of them don’t have to do with dementia-related brain changes.
“Medications and substances that disturb sleep, such as caffeine and nicotine, or those that have sedating side effects, may also cause sleepiness,” he explains.
Publication : Prevention
Author : Kayla Blanton
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