Protecting our brains should be a priority as we age.
The most conscientious make it a point to get out and exercise, avoid smoking and monitor their blood pressure – perhaps even protect their hearing, get vaccinated and listen to music to reduce the risk of dementia.
But a seemingly harmless routine practiced by between a third and half of people over 65 threatens to derail these efforts to keep dementia at bay.
New research from Johns Hopkins suggests that daytime napping is correlated with a significantly increased risk of dementia in adults 65 and older.
Taking a nap during the day is common among older adults. Researchers say this could be because their nighttime sleep is more fragmented and shallower, causing a desire to doze off when energy drops during the day.
Just like younger people – more than one in three of whom also take daily naps, by the way – a good nap can channel a cup of coffee, boosting energy, alertness and productivity.
Often, naps are considered a harmless and inevitable part of aging. But this new study shows that the frequency, duration and spontaneity of napping could influence the likelihood of developing dementia.
What the researchers discovered
According to the researchers, those who took a nap almost every day or every day had a 48% higher risk of developing dementia over 10 years, compared to those who rarely or never took a nap.
Those who nap frequently also had a higher BMI, more health problems, more pronounced depressive symptoms, and were more likely to experience daytime sleepiness. They were also more often men.
But nap frequency doesn’t tell the whole story. Unintentional napping – falling asleep without planning to – was associated with a 39% higher risk of dementia.
The length of the nap also mattered. Naps of less than 30 minutes were associated with a 40% higher risk of dementia. Other research indicates that longer naps are associated with cognitive decline.
Does napping cause dementia?
In short, Johns Hopkins researchers don’t believe it.
“More frequent naps could be a marker of changes in the brain, rather than a cause of brain changes leading to dementia,” said study author Adam Spira.
The relationship is probably more complicated. Napping could affect dementia risk, while degeneration of brain regions (which occurs during dementia) leads to more frequent naps.
For this reason, Spira’s team wanted to make sure that increased naps weren’t just an early symptom of dementia. They therefore analyzed their data, excluding patients with dementia diagnosed during the first five years of the study.
They found the same relationship: more frequent naps and shorter naps were associated with a higher risk of dementia in the future. This means that the increase in napping habits appeared years before an official diagnosis of dementia.
“Monitoring napping behaviors could serve as an early and accessible marker to help identify older adults at higher risk of dementia and guide targeted interventions for dementia prevention,” said author Kening Jiang.
Although napping could serve as a marker for dementia in the future, researchers do not believe a causal relationship exists.
The authors say it’s possible that napping is a modifiable risk factor for dementia, meaning future research could reveal whether changing napping habits could help reduce the risk of developing the condition.
Gn Health
