A new study among middleaged and older adults has suggested that daytime napping, particularly around the middle of the day, is linked to a higher risk of death from any cause.
The study was presented at Sleep 2025 — the 39th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS), held in Seattle, WA the in the United States (U.S.) between June 8–11.
Its full results are yet to be published in a peerreviewed journal. Emer MacSweeney, MD, CEO and consultant neuroradiologist at Re: Cognition Health, who was not involved in this study, said:
“These findings are significant because they suggest that daytime napping patterns could serve as early markers of declining health or disrupted sleep architecture in older adults.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that adults get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep a night to maintain physical and mental health. The study used data from 86,565 participants in the UK Biobank.
At the start, participants had a mean age of 63 years, 57 per cent were female, and none had a history of shift work. During the 8-year follow-up, 2,950 participants died (3.4 per cent of the total).
For those who died, mean survival from the start was 4.19 years. The researchers found that those who died during follow up took longer naps, had more variation in their nap times, and were more likely to nap between 11 am and 3 pm.
