Not everyone gets enough sleep, i.e, at least 7 hours a night for adults. That makes napping a great option — if you do it right. After all, sleeping too much has health consequences too. Here is how to balance out your zzzz’s.

A Cat Nap Can Go a Long Way

Long naps could increase your risk for a cardiac event.

Diagnosis Life summary:
Napping can be beneficial but you can have too much of a good thing. A study in Sleep (https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.2248) looked at the napping habits of more than 4,200 adults between the ages of 45 and 75 years old. After approximately 8 years of follow-up, 81 participants had a heart attack and 54 people died from a heart-related event. The risks for a cardiac event were more than twice as high for people who napped more than an hour mid-day. The association continued after confounding factors like calcium in the coronary arteries were taken into consideration.

Napping can help sleep-deprived teens perform better academically.

Diagnosis Life summary:
Napping is not just for little kids or older people. A study in Journal of Sleep Research (https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12497) looked at the effects of napping on 57 sleep-deprived teens. The researchers gathered the teens for a live-in protocol where they were all restricted to 5 hours of sleep per night over 15 days (with some recovery sleep days in between). One group of teens was also offered a 1 hour nap time. Their processing speed and accuracy was tested daily using the Blocked Symbol Decoding Test. Some teens completed the test without breaks while others were offered short rest breaks between testing blocks. Nappers performed better regardless of the timing of the test. Non-nappers did better, though not as good as nappers, when they had short breaks. “More frequent rest breaks might be important in situations where sleep loss is unavoidable”.

Napping may be good for your heart.

Diagnosis Life summary:
Kindergartners don’t know how good they have it. A nap can be refreshing, giving you the energy to get through the day. Now researchers believe it may actually protect your heart! A study in Heart (https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2019-314999) looked at the frequency of napping on nearly 3,500 adults without known heart disease. They found that 1-2 daytime naps per week decreased the risk of heart disease when compared to people who did not nap at all. The study says “the connection between more frequent naps and heart health was not as strong.” Now you can take a nap break and not feel guilty about it.

Napping may keep seniors quick witted.

Diagnosis Life summary:
It can be hard to focus if you feel tired. Unfortunately, the sleep cycle shortens as we get older and getting enough sleep becomes harder. A study in General Psychiatry (https://doi.org/10.1136/gpsych-2020-100361) looked at approximately 2,200 Chinese seniors 60 years and older. They found that those who napped during the day (5 minutes to less than 2 hours) scored better on cognitive tests with improvements in memory, executive functioning, language, and mood. Still, not all naps helped. “Longer and more frequent naps were associated with poorer cognitive functioning, while short (<30 min), frequent (four times weekly) naps were associated with an 84% decreased risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.” If you don’t let the nap get away from you, you could reap benefits.

Shorter naps are better for seniors.

Diagnosis Life summary:
How long should you nap? A study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.14368) looked at approximately 3,000 senior adults (65 years and older). The researchers divided them into four groups — non-nappers, short nappers (< 30 minutes per nap) , moderate nappers (30 – 90 minutes per nap), and extended nappers (> 90 minutes per nap). Approximately 58% of those seniors napped after lunch. The average nap time was about an hour. People in the moderate napping group performed best overall when it came to cognition (orientation and attention, word recall, and figure drawing) and short nappers fared better than non-nappers. Extended nappers did not do as well. With that in mind, you may want to keep those naps on the shorter side to get the most benefits.