Older adults who frequently fall asleep during the day, doze off unintentionally, or take naps lasting no more than 30 minutes may have an increased risk of developing dementia. This is the conclusion of a study published in The Journals of Gerontology.
The study included more than 990 adults aged 65 and older who received healthcare through the Medicare program. None had dementia at the beginning of the study in 2013. The researchers followed the participants for up to 10 years.
The results showed that people who napped almost every day or daily had a 48% higher risk of developing dementia than those who napped rarely or not at all. Unintentional daytime sleep was associated with a 39% higher risk, while naps lasting no more than 30 minutes were linked to a 40% higher risk.
According to the study's lead author, Qingyan Jiang, a research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, monitoring daytime napping habits could offer an accessible way to identify older adults at increased risk of dementia and determine who might benefit most from preventive measures.
However, the researchers emphasized that the study does not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between daytime napping and dementia. More frequent napping may not cause changes in the brain but could instead be one of their early signs.
The relationship may also work both ways. On the one hand, daytime napping habits may be associated with dementia risk. On the other, early brain changes may affect the areas responsible for regulating wakefulness, causing people to fall asleep more often during the day.
The study's senior author, Adam Spira, a professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, noted that larger and longer-term studies are needed to better understand this relationship.
Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter