The Pros and Cons of Afternoon Naps
by Anjanee Sharma on
January 29, 2021 at 6:20 PM
Research has found that adults over the age of 60 who took afternoon naps scored higher on a cognitive test for mental agility than those who didn't nap.
The research team, led by Dr. Lin Sun, studied physical and cognitive health in 2,214 people over age 60 residing in large cities in China. 1,534 of these people took regular afternoon naps while 680 did not. For both groups, nappers, and non-nappers, the average length of nighttime sleep was around 6.5 hours.
All of the participants had to undergo health checks and cognitive assessments. They also underwent the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) to check for dementia, which included 30 items measuring several aspects of cognitive ability and higher function such as visuospatial skills, working memory, attention span, problem solving, locational awareness, and verbal fluency.