2023-06-03 10:26:28
Follow-up – Ali Mualla:
The study found that frequent sleep is evidence of strong inflammation in the body, while Chinese researchers conducted a new study on the benefits of taking even a simple nap in the followingnoon.
Researchers from Shanghai University studied the sleep patterns of 2,214 healthy adults aged 60 or older who lived in several large cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an.
Among the participants, 1,534 people reported taking a regular followingnoon nap of between five minutes and two hours, while the remaining 680 did not.
Both subjects also took part in a dementia screening test, and the results revealed significant differences between the two groups. Sleeping in the followingnoon was associated with better situational awareness, verbal fluency, and memory quality in older adults.
Previous research has not been able to reach a consensus on whether napping might help fight dementia.
In the developed world, around 1 in 10 people over the age of 65 suffer from dementia, with numbers increasing as life expectancy rises.
“In addition to reducing sleepiness, a midday nap provides a variety of benefits,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
They explained that these benefits include strengthening memory, preparing for later learning, improving executive performance and enhancing emotional stability.
The team found that those who took a regular followingnoon nap had higher levels of a fat called triglyceride in their blood.
The researchers also offered some possible explanations for the findings, including the theory that sleep regulates the body’s immune response, and napping might be an evolving response to inflammation.
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