An afternoon nap could help maintain your brain

Taking a regular nap after lunch could help with maintaining mental agility as we age. — AFP

Taking a regular afternoon nap may be linked to better mental agility, suggests research published in the online journal General Psychiatry.

It seems to be associated with better locational awareness, verbal fluency and working memory, the findings indicate.

Longer life expectancy and the associated neurodegenerative changes that accompany it, raise the prospect of dementia, with around one in 10 people over the age of 65 affected in the developed world.

As people age, their sleep patterns change, with afternoon naps becoming more frequent.

But research published to date hasn’t reached any consensus on whether afternoon naps might help to stave off cognitive decline and dementia in older people, or whether they might be a symptom of dementia.

The researchers explored this further in 2,214 ostensibly healthy people aged at least 60 who were staying in several large cities around China, including Beijing, Shanghai and Xian.

In all, 1,534 of these participants took a regular afternoon nap, while 680 didn’t.

All participants underwent a series of health checks and cognitive assessments, including the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) to check for dementia.

The average length of nighttime sleep was around 6.5 hours in both groups.

Afternoon naps were defined as periods of at least five consecutive minutes of sleep, but no more than two hours, and taken after lunch.

Participants were asked how often they napped during the week; this ranged from once a week to every day.

The dementia screening tests included 30 items that measured several aspects of cognitive ability and higher function, including visuospatial skills, working memory, attention span, problem-solving, locational awareness and verbal fluency.

The MMSE cognitive performance scores were significantly higher among the nappers than they were among those who didn’t nap.

And there were significant differences in locational awareness, verbal fluency and memory.

This is an observational study, and so can’t establish cause.

And there was no information on the duration or timing of the naps taken, which may be important.

But there are some possible explanations for the observations found, say the researchers.

One theory is that inflammation is a mediator between midday naps and poor health outcomes.

Inflammatory chemicals have an important role in sleep disorders, note the researchers.

Sleep regulates the body’s immune response and napping is thought to be an evolved response to inflammation.

People with higher levels of inflammation also nap more often, explain the researchers.