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posted by janrinok on Sunday September 15 2019, @07:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the gets-back-under-duvet-regardless dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Once or twice weekly daytime nap linked to lower heart attack/stroke risk: But no such association found for greater frequency or duration of naps

The impact of napping on heart health has been hotly contested. Many of the published studies on the topic have failed to consider napping frequency, or focused purely on cardiovascular disease deaths, or compared regular nappers with those not opting for a mini siesta, say the researchers.

In a bid to try and address these issues, they looked at the association between napping frequency and average nap duration and the risk of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease 'events,' such as heart attack, stroke, or heart failure, among 3462 randomly selected residents of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Each participant was aged between 35 and 75, when recruited between 2003 and 2006 to the CoLaus study. This has been looking at the factors behind the development of cardiovascular disease. Participants' first check-up took place between 2009 and 2012, when information on their sleep and nap patterns in the previous week was collected, and their health was then subsequently monitored for an average of 5 years.

Over half (58%, 2014) of the participants said they didn't nap during the previous week; around one in five (19%, 667) said they took one to two naps; around one in 10 (12%, 411) said they took three to five; while a similar proportion (11%, 370) said they took six to seven.

Frequent nappers (3-7 naps a week) tended to be older, male, smokers, weigh more, and to sleep for longer at night than those who said they didn't nap during the day. And they reported more daytime sleepiness and more severe obstructive sleep apnea -- a condition in which the walls of the throat relax and narrow during sleep, interrupting normal breathing.

During the monitoring period, there were 155 fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease 'events'.

Occasional napping, once to twice weekly, was associated with an almost halving in attack/stroke/heart failure risk (48%) compared with those who didn't nap at all.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @09:00AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @09:00AM (#894561)

    hunter gatherers in africa and south america sleep an average of 6 hours a day, with no naps.
    my guess is that more sleep is needed for modern lifestyles (including naps) due to extra stress, hence extra brain-cleaning required.

  • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday September 16 2019, @09:55AM

    by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 16 2019, @09:55AM (#894562)

    And some people need extra brain cleaning after what they've seen on the internet!