We need roughly seven to eight hours of sleep a night for our bodies to function.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, you may experience a lack of concentration and poor memory if you don’t get enough sleep. As well as weight gain, mood swings, weak immune system, depression, and puffy eyes.
That’s why doctors and sleep experts recommend power naps. Whether you sleep for 20 minutes or two hours. A study from the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that a power nap can repair the brain and body. As well as improving:
- Sleepiness
- Alertness
- Performance
- Memory
- Behavior
- Emotions
Yet, research on the benefit of napping in adults is mixed.
While some studies suggest that napping in young adults can have mental benefits, it has been linked to impairments in older adults. Although daytime napping is common in older adults, researchers could not understand the relationship between daytime napping and cognitive aging.
However, a groundbreaking study from Boston medical researchers has discovered a “vicious cycle” between daytime napping and Alzheimer’s dementia.
What is Alzheimer’s dementia?
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, with 50 to 75 percent of patients diagnosed. It causes disorientation, mood, and behavior changes, and confusion about events, time, and place. As well as suspicions about family, friends, and professional caregivers. Plus, severe memory loss and behavior changes; and difficulty speaking, swallowing and walking.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 6 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s. While one-third of people with Alzheimer’s disease will develop dementia within 5 years of diagnosis.
How is excessive napping linked to dementia?
As there have been mixed results about the benefits of napping on older adults’ minds, researchers at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital carried out two studies. They first found that those who sleep more frequently as they age are more likely to get dementia. They then discovered that those who have dementia are more likely to nap.
“Our results not only suggest that excessive daytime napping may signal an elevated risk of Alzheimer’s dementia, but they also show that faster yearly increase in daytime napping may be a sign of deteriorating or unfavored clinical progression of the disease,” said Peng Li, of the Medical Biodynamics Program in the Brigham’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders.
Scientists worked with 1,401 participants from Rush Memory and Aging Project over 14 years. The average age of the participants was 81, and around three-quarters of them were women. Each person was told to wear Actical, a watch-like device, on their non-dominant wrist for 14 days. The researchers could follow the participant’s sleep patterns through the devices.
Through the data they collected, the study revealed the length of a nap and how frequently a participant napped related to age. The researchers also found a relationship between napping and Alzheimer’s dementia. Additional and longer daytime naps were a sign of developing dementia in cognitively normal older adults. What’s more, they discovered an increase in napping as the disease progressed.
Li added, “The vicious cycle we observed between daytime sleep and Alzheimer’s disease offers a basis for better understanding the role of sleep in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease in older adults.”
What to do if an adult has an increase in napping?
There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s. So an early diagnosis is best for slowing the disease and helping an older adult remain independent.
If you spot a sudden increase in a loved one’s length or frequency of daytime napping, mention it to your doctor. But, don’t be alarmed if an elderly relative takes brief naps, as they can help adults recharge in older agdemene.