Posted on 06/21/2023 9:49:51 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Daytime napping may help to preserve brain health by slowing the rate at which our brains shrink as we age, suggests a new study.
The study analyzed data from people aged 40 to 69 and found a causal link between habitual napping and larger total brain volume—a marker of good brain health linked to a lower risk of dementia and other diseases.
Previous research has shown that napping has cognitive benefits, with people who have had a short nap performing better in cognitive tests in the hours afterwards than counterparts who did not nap.
The new study aimed to establish if there was a causal relationship between daytime napping and brain health.
Using a technique called Mendelian randomization, they looked at 97 snippets of DNA thought to determine people's likelihood of habitual napping. They compared measures of brain health and cognition of people who are more genetically "programmed" to nap with counterparts who did not have these genetic variants, using data from 378,932 people from the UK Biobank study, and found that, overall, people predetermined to nap had a larger total brain volume.
The research team estimated that the average difference in brain volume between people programmed to be habitual nappers and those who were not was equivalent to 2.6 to 6.5 years of aging.
But the researchers did not find a difference in how well those programmed to be habitual nappers performed on three other measures of brain health and cognitive function—hippocampal volume, reaction time and visual processing.
While the researchers did not have information on nap duration, earlier studies suggest that naps of 30 minutes or less provide the best short-term cognitive benefits, and napping earlier in the day is less likely to disrupt night-time sleep.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Try to keep the naps at 30 minutes, or less.
That would help explain why Joe naps so much. He’s trying to preserve what he has.
I thought there was just recently studies showing a link between napping and dementia.
I knew there was a reason I take morning and afternoon naps!
Regular napping? My cat must be a genius.
“I thought there was just recently studies showing a link between napping and dementia.”
There was! And not that long ago. I was just going to say the same thing.
Butter good. Butter bad.
Coffee good. Coffee bad.
Napping good. Napping bad.
Winston Churchill was legendary for his 2-3 hour midday naps, and he was razor-sharp at 90, so perhaps there’s something to this.
Yeah, baby!
Is it “cheating” to induce sleep with melatonin? I use it but sometimes it seems like I’m just sleeping off the extra melatonin.
Both the article, and my comment, tell how to get around that.
Nap no longer than 30 minutes, each day.
“Is it ‘cheating’ to induce sleep with melatonin?”
I don’t think so. Isn’t melatonin in the body naturally?
It worked well for me in the area of sleeping. Just a tiny bit was perfect. Then I got a couple UTIs and looked online and learned there can be a big connection. No more melatonin.
If you are a daily napper, you could have a larger brain, or sleep apnea...
Melatonin does that to me as well, but I would guess that as long it's only occasional use, it should not be a problem.
It promotes dementia, but you have a larger brain for extra craziness!
LOL!!!
Ah the afternoon nap! Just the thing.
Calling all nappers!
Somebody please explain this to my wife.
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