In a new study, researchers found that taking a regular afternoon nap may be linked to better mental agility.
It seems to be linked to better locational awareness, verbal fluency, and working memory.
The research was conducted by a team at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and elsewhere.
Longer life expectancy and the associated neurodegenerative changes that accompany it, raise the prospect of dementia, with around 1 in 10 people over the age of 65 affected in the developed world.
As people age, their sleep patterns change, with afternoon naps becoming more frequent.
But research published to date hasn’t reached any consensus on whether afternoon naps might help to stave off cognitive decline and dementia in older people or whether they might be a symptom of dementia.
In the study, the team explored this further in 2214 ostensibly healthy people aged at least 60 and resident in several large cities around China, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian.
In all, 1534 took a regular afternoon nap, while 680 didn’t.
All participants underwent a series of health checks and cognitive assessments, including the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) to check for dementia.
The average length of nighttime sleep was around 6.5 hours in both groups.
Afternoon naps were defined as periods of at least five consecutive minutes of sleep, but no more than 2 hours, and taken after lunch.
Participants were asked how often they napped during the week; this ranged from once a week to every day.
The team found that cognitive performance was much higher among the nappers than they were among those who didn’t nap.
And there were big differences in locational awareness, verbal fluency, and memory.
The team says there are some possible explanations for the observations found.
One theory is that inflammation is a mediator between mid-day naps and poor health outcomes; inflammatory chemicals have an important role in sleep disorders, note the researchers.
Sleep regulates the body’s immune response and napping is thought to be an evolved response to inflammation; people with higher levels of inflammation also nap more often.
One author of the study is Lin Sun.
The study is published in the journal General Psychiatry.
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