No- I am not speaking to my afternoon students.
Taking an afternoon snooze could keep your brain sharp, a new study has said.
Adults ages 60 and older who took afternoon naps showed signs of better mental agility compared to those who didn’t nap, according to a study published in General Psychiatry earlier this week.
Researchers analyzed napping habits in 2,214 older Chinese people and measured their cognitive abilities using several cognitive tests.
The participants were divided into two categories, those who took regular naps and those who didn’t. The study defined naps as a period of sleep taken after lunch lasting between five minutes and two hours.
Participants took the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Beijing version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, both of which test for memory, language and other cognitive abilities.
Results showed that napping positively affected older adults’ mental abilities, said lead study author Cai Han, geriatric psychiatrist at The Fourth People’s Hospital of Wuhu in China.
In every category listed in the study, nappers tested statistically higher on average compared to their non-napping counterparts.
In the future, Han wants to study the effects of different lifestyles on cognitive function.
Neubauer recommended taking a shorter “power nap” of up to 20 minutes to decrease the chances of transitioning into slow-wave sleep, which makes people feel groggy when they wake up.
Napping can be a healthy part of an older adult’s day, Neubauer acknowledged, but make sure sleepiness isn’t due to a treatable nighttime sleep disorder.
“Older individuals who want to do all they can to preserve their cognitive functioning should prioritize nighttime sleep,” Neubauer said.