New Research Links Daytime Naps to Increased Mortality in Older Adults
Recent findings suggest that taking naps during the day could be associated with higher mortality rates among older adults. This research, unveiled last month at the Sleep 2025 conference in Seattle, indicates that frequent and extended naps, particularly those occurring in the early afternoon, might raise the risk of death over an eight-year period.
Chenlu Gao, a postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, noted that “our research fills the knowledge gap.” He emphasized the importance of not just the act of napping, but also the duration and irregularity of those naps as potentially significant indicators of future health risks.
The study encompassed a large group of participants—86,565 individuals with an average age of 63—all of whom worked standard daytime hours. Researchers tracked movements during sleep but did not gauge brain activity.
Defining daytime naps as sleep occurring between 9 AM and 7 PM, the researchers observed that over the study period, 5,189 participants (or 6.0%) passed away. Interestingly, longer naps taken between 11 AM and 3 PM were correlated with higher mortality rates. Adjustments were made for various other factors influencing mortality, such as age, weight, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, and nighttime sleep duration.
Experts emphasize that while naps could indicate potential health issues, they aren’t necessarily problematic unless they are a desperate attempt to compensate for inadequate nighttime sleep. Dr. Chelsea Rollshave, a neuroscientist and sleep expert, highlighted the necessity of getting 7-9 hours of quality sleep for maintaining good health and avoiding conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
Research Limitations
Despite the implications, this study does not prove that napping directly causes increased mortality. Gao pointed out that “these are associations” and more research is required to establish any causal links between napping and health outcomes.
Additionally, there are potential limitations in how naps were defined and detected—since the study relied on movement detection, instances of “quiet awakening” might have been misclassified as sleep. Researchers cautioned that the time window for what constituted a nap could have led to inaccurate categorization, possibly including actual nighttime sleep in their counts.
Excessive napping could also signal underlying health issues, such as chronic diseases or disruptions in circadian rhythms, which themselves could heighten mortality risk. Rollshave remarked that people who depend on daytime naps might either not be getting enough sleep at night or could be dealing with significant health problems causing daytime drowsiness.
Gao concluded by stating that monitoring nap patterns could play a role in early identification of health statuses, enabling timely interventions. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that healthy adults restrict naps to about 20-30 minutes during the early afternoon for optimal benefits.
While short “power naps” have been shown to enhance alertness and performance, naps exceeding 30 minutes can sometimes lead to grogginess—referred to as “sleep inertia”—which can dull the immediate benefits of napping. Ultimately, these findings suggest that moderate napping could reveal broader health concerns that are worth discussing with healthcare providers.
