It’s tempting to grab a quick nap while you’re working from home. A new study suggests you might want to give in to that temptation.
The study, published earlier this week in General Psychiatry, divided 2,214 Chinese senior citizens into two groups: napping and non-napping. The participants all received cognitive assessments, and 739 volunteered to take blood lipid tests.
The scientists observed “significant differences” in cognitive function and blood lipids between the two groups, with the nappers exhibiting better orientation, language and memory.
“This study found that a proper nap is beneficial to the maintenance of cognitive function, so we encourage the elderly to take a proper nap,” lead study author Cai Han, geriatric psychiatrist at the Fourth People’s Hospital of Wuhu in China, told CNN.
The naps varied in length from five minutes to two hours, and the study did not specify if longer naps were more beneficial.
Although this study did not include anyone younger than 60, a 2019 study found that an afternoon nap can lower blood pressure as well as other lifestyle changes, such as salt and alcohol reduction.
“These findings are important because a drop in blood pressure as small as 2 mm Hg can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attack by up to 10 percent,” Manolis Kallistratos, a cardiologist at the Asklepieion General Hospital in Voula, Greece, and one of the study’s co-authors, said at the time. “Based on our findings, if someone has the luxury to take a nap during the day, it may also have benefits for high blood pressure. Napping can be easily adopted and typically doesn’t cost anything.”
Overall, the average 24-hour systolic blood pressure was 5.3 mm Hg lower among those who napped compared with those who didn’t.
“We obviously don’t want to encourage people to sleep for hours on end during the day, but on the other hand, they shouldn’t feel guilty if they can take a short nap, given the potential health benefits,” Kallistratos said.
