We all love a good nap. But too much napping may be a warning sign of an underlying condition in older adults, according to a new study.
“Excessive naps and naps that occur in the morning could mean something more serious is happening with their health,” said Aron Buchman, MD, professor in the Rush Department of Neurological Sciences at Rush and an author of the study.
The study, by investigators from Rush and Mass General Brigham, suggests naps among older adults that were longer, more frequent or taken in the morning were associated with higher mortality rates.
The study, which focused on older adults ages 74 to 88, was published earlier this month in JAMA Network Open.
“Those who are caregivers may want to have their loved one checked if they notice a change in their sleeping pattern,” Buchman said.
The researchers followed 1,338 older adults for up to 19 years to track napping habits and associated mortality rates. They analyzed the data for associations between napping patterns at the initial assessment and all-cause mortality during the 19-year follow-up, finding that longer, more frequent, and morning naps were all associated with higher mortality.
Highest risk for morning nappers
The difference was most notable among morning nappers. While each additional hour of daytime napping per day was associated with about a 13% higher mortality risk, and each extra nap per day was associated with around 7% higher mortality risk, morning nappers had 30% higher mortality risk compared to afternoon nappers. Irregular napping patterns were not associated with any increased mortality risk.
“We found an association between napping and underlying disease, or chronic conditions, that may be related to sleep disturbances,” Buchman said.
Buchman notes that further research will be needed to determine if the results are observed in the general population. More work is needed to determine objective sleeping patterns, including the time of day people nap, how long they nap, and how these patterns may change over time so that new treatments can be developed.
The study used data from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, which began in 1997 as a cohort study that focuses on chronic health conditions of older adults. Beginning in 2005, participants wore wrist activity monitors for 10 days to measure rest-activity data. The team extracted sleep patterns from these multiday recordings and quantified nap length, frequency, time of day, and day-to-day variability.
Authors in the study included Mass General Brigham authors Chenlu Gao, Peng Li, Ruixue Cai, Xi Zheng, Arlen Gaba, Lei Gao and Kun Hu. Additional authors at Rush include Lei Yuand David A. Bennett.
The study was supported by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation, the Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship to Promote Diversity, the National Institution on Aging. The Rush Memory and Aging Project is supported by the National Institutes of Health.
