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With age come changes in the structure and quality of our
sleep. After about age 60, we have less deep (slow-wave) sleep and more rapid
sleep cycles, we awaken more often, and we sleep an average of two hours less
at night than we did as young adults. It was once thought that older people
didn’t need as much sleep as younger ones, but experts now agree that’s not the
case. Regardless of age, we typically need seven-and-a-half to eight hours of
sleep to function at our best. So if you’re not getting enough sleep at night,
what about daytime naps? Or does napping disrupt the sleep cycle, ultimately
yielding less sleep and more daytime drowsiness?
These questions were addressed in a recent study by
researchers at the Weill Cornell Medical
College in White Plains, N.Y.,
and published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (February
2011). The authors concluded that napping not only increases older individuals’
total sleep time—without producing daytime drowsiness—but also provides
measurable cognitive benefits.
The study. This small but well-designed study involved 22
healthy women and men ages 50 to 83 who agreed to be evaluated in a sleep
laboratory. During a one- to two-week preliminary period, participants kept
sleep logs at home and wore monitors to track their nighttime movements. They
were then brought into the sleep laboratory for three nights and two days and
given a thorough sleep evaluation (using polysomnography and other techniques)
and a battery of cognitive tests. After this initial laboratory session,
participants started a month-long daily napping routine at home: half took
short (45-minute) naps, and half took longer (two-hour) naps. After the second
and fourth weeks, all returned to the lab for repeat assessments.
The results. By study’s end, total sleep time had increased
by an average of 65 minutes in the participants assigned to two-hour naps, and
by an average of 20 minutes in those assigned to 45-minute naps. Participants
found it harder to adhere to the two-hour nap schedule, but neither long naps
nor short naps disrupted nighttime sleep or led to daytime sleepiness. Napping
increased the time spent in slow-wave and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, which
are thought to play important roles in restoring the body and brain. Whether
they took long naps or short naps, participants showed significant improvement
on three of the four tests in the study’s cognitive-assessment battery.
Limitations and implications. Only people in good physical
and mental health were included in the study, so it’s unclear whether a
45-minute or two-hour napping regimen would be as helpful to older adults with
sleep disorders or medical conditions. The study tells us nothing about the
effects of shorter naps (for example, so-called power naps) on waking function.
Moreover, the study was brief: napping-related cognitive function was measured
after only two weeks and four weeks. Whether the improvements observed during
the study would continue during subsequent weeks of napping is not known.
Nevertheless, the findings provide further evidence that for older people, a
daily nap can add to total sleep (as well as time in restorative sleep) and
improve daytime function.
###
The above report is obtained from the May 8, 2012 issue of
the Healthbeat published by the Harvard
Medical School.
The study is published here: Campbell SS, Stanchina MD, Schlang JR, Murphy PJ. Effects of a month-long napping regimen in
older individuals. Journal of the
American Geriatrics Society 59: 224-32, 2011.
Click HERE for “How to Sleep Better: Tips for Getting a Good
Night’s Sleep” by HELPGUIDE.orghttp://www.helpguide.org/harvard/harvard_collaboration.htm in collaboration with Harvard Health
Publications.
If you want a comprehensive guide from Harvard, click HERE
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