Daytime napping linked to early death

Daytime napping linked to an early
death
A new study has found that people who nap for
more than an hour during the day have an
increased chance of dying younger than their
peer.
But that doesn't mean naps are necessarily bad
for you.
The study by researchers from Cambridge
University may simply indicate that the need to
frequently nap during the day is a sign of
underlying health problems.
The research took data from the European
Prospective Investigation Into Cancer (EPIC)-
Norfolk prospective cohort study, and studied the
habits of more than 16,000 people in the UK aged
between 40 and 79.
After studying the large data set, the scientists
found that those who napped for more than an
hour each day were 32 per cent more likely to die
during the 13-year study.
The causes of death varied and included heart
disease, cancer and respiratory illness - which
was associated the most strongly to nap time. In
fact, nappers who slept more than an hour during
the day had double the chance of dying form a
respiratory illness than those who didn't nap at
all.
The results are published in the American Journal
of Epidemiology.
The authors wrote: “Although a range of
preexisting health conditions and medication use
was considered in this study, we cannot rule out
that our results may be partly explained by the
effects of other undiagnosed health problems or
medications not included in this study that might
cause daytime fatigue or sleepiness."
But let's not all get too down on napping -
remember that correlation doesn't mean
causation. And don't forget science has also
previously shown naps can improve
concentration, memory and even heart health -
especially if you keep it to under half an hour.
While it's too early to draw any conclusions from
this work, it's also worth keeping in mind that
chronic sleep conditions such as sleep apnea can
cause fatigue during the day, and have also been
linked to an increased risk of premature death.
Still, the results suggest that if you constantly
need to take lengthy daytime naps, it might be
worth getting checked out for underlying health
problems.