Scientists from the University Hospital of Lausanne found that a daytime nap taken once or twice a week may lower the risk of having a heart attack/stroke.
But no such association emerged for either greater frequency or duration of naps.
The research is published in the journal Heart and was conducted by Nadine Häusler et al.
The impact of napping on heart health has been hotly contested.
Many previous studies have failed to consider the napping frequency, or focused purely on heart disease deaths, or compared regular nappers with those not opting for a mini siesta.
In the study, the team looked at the association between napping frequency and average nap duration and the risk of heart attack, stroke, or heart failure, in 3462 people in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Each participant was aged between 35 and 75 when recruited between 2003 and 2006 to the CoLaus study. Their health was then subsequently monitored for an average of 5 years.
The team found frequent nappers (3-7 naps a week) tended to be older, male, smokers, weigh more, and 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 apnoea—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 heart disease ‘events’.
The team found occasional napping, once to twice weekly, was linked to an almost halving in attack/stroke/heart failure risk (48%) compared with those who didn’t nap at all.
And it didn’t change after factoring in excessive daytime sleepiness, depression, and regularly sleeping for at least 6 hours a night. Only older age (65+) and severe sleep apnoea affected it.
But the 67% heightened heart risk initially found for frequent nappers virtually disappeared after taking into account potentially influential factors.
And no associations with cardiovascular disease ‘events’ were found for nap length (from 5 minutes to 1 hour plus).
The team says nap frequency may help to explain the differing conclusions reached by researchers about the impact of napping on heart health.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about diet that could help reverse heart failure without meds, and magnets in these popular devices may harm your heart health.
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