Napping too much may be a warning sign for older adults
Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Finding your aging parents napping frequently early in the day could be a warning sign of something much more serious, doctors at Boston’s Mass General Brigham healthcare system have warned. While quick cat naps can often be restorative, previous research has shown that longer naps can negatively impact cognitive ability and cardiovascular health. Now, a new, nearly two-decade-long study of more than 1,330 people reinforces and builds on those findings, showing that longer and more frequent morning naps are tied to a higher risk of death and underlying illness. Although the researchers did not say if there was a critical threshold for how many naps were too many naps to take, they found that each additional hour of napping was tied to a 13 percent higher risk of death and each extra nap raised that risk by 7 percent. Morning nappers …
