The study found people with the fewest heart attacks took 1 to 2 naps a week, while second place went to the group who never took naps. People who nap nearly every day, though, had the most heart attacks and strokes during the study. Why would napping be a bad thing at all?
I think a lot of the data we have to understand is observational.
We know that the people who were napping more frequently in general had chronic conditions and were sicker. We can't entirely exclude that as the reason that there were worse outcomes in that group, even though they adjust for those risk factors.
With a study like this, we always have to realize that these are just associations and it's not necessarily in the causal pathway.
Wouldn't sleep be a good thing for minimizing or, at least, helping to minimize heart disease?
There are some big studies that show the normal sleep duration that all people need is somewhere between seven and nine hours. And that both too little and too much sleep is associated with worse outcomes than sleep in that normal range.
The most important thing, really, to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease or stroke is to do what we really already know:
- Maintain a healthy weight.
Could more naps actually hurt or are they just not as beneficial as fewer naps?
So I think the thing to take away from this study is that people who nap every day tend to have worse outcomes just because of who they are.
Part of this might be that many of these people have sleep apnea. And sleep apnea is a problem that affects the quality of sleep people get. It's a really common disorder where the upper airway is actually closed during sleep and there are pauses in breathing during sleep.
Sleep apnea is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and even abnormal heart rhythms called atrial fibrillation.
So, people with this problem sort of sleep poorly at night, feel tired during the day, and this can cause a sort of low energy feeling - you're not able to focus.
So, if someone has this problem or you suspect that your partner might have this problem, it's important to get in touch with your doctor, to be evaluated.
Wasn't there a point, though, at which people were saying it was okay to take a ten to 15-minute nap each day, and that it might have beneficial qualities to it?
It's probably not the napping itself, it's more just the conditions that the person has.
I don't think we should think about napping or not napping as a modality to improve our health. We should really focus on sort of the underlying things we know are important: weight, exercise, diet, not smoking, managing cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar.
When a person hears of studies like this, and perhaps you nap regularly, you might be inclined to think, “oh, I'm doing something wrong.” Is that necessarily the case?
No, I don't think that we have any data, you know, that would suggest stopping doing this activity would modify the risk of developing a heart attack or stroke.
What we need to do is modify the factors that we really know will decrease that risk over time.
RESOURCES:
How Does Sleep Affect Your Heart Health?
Study shows link between frequent naps and high blood pressure
Afternoon naps may lower heart attack and stroke risk
Is Napping Bad For You? New Study Links Frequent Naps to Higher Risk of Stroke, High Blood Pressure
Naps and cardiovascular health: The pros and cons
Long naps may be bad for health
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