Long Daytime Naps Linked to Increased Cognitive Decline in Older Men

Astudy inAlzheimer ’s& Dementia suggests that older men who sleep more than two hours during the day could have a higher risk of developing cognitive decline.“While sleep is considered to enhance memory retention and consolidation, especially among healthy younger adults, it remains controversial whether napping could benefit cognition by compensating for poor nighttime sleep, or if napping might be a … risk factor of cognitive impairment in the elde rly,” wrote Yue Leng, Ph.D., M.Phil., of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues.Leng and colleagues measured naps in 2,751 men aged 65 years and older who were enrolled in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study between 2000 and 2002. The participants wore devices similar to wristwatches that measured sleep-wake activity for at least five days in a row when they first enrolled in the study, then had at least one follow-up visit over the next 12 years in which researchers measured their cognitive function.The researchers found that men who napped for at least two hours during the day at baseline were 66% more likely to develop cognitive impairment than those who napped for fewer than 30 minutes. When the researchers included data on how well and how long the participants slept at night, they found that the so-called “long nappers” who also slept soundly or for six to eight hours a night had roughly twice the risk of developing cognitive impairment compared with their counterparts whose naps wer...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Alzheimer's & Dementia cognitive function napping Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study sleep Yue Leng Source Type: research