- Researchers say people over age 60 who took afternoon naps performed better on cognitive tests than people who didn’t nap.
- Experts say afternoon naps benefit people of any age by resting the brain and clearing out our jumble of daily thoughts.
- One expert said the best nap is 10 to 30 minutes taken between 1 and 3 p.m.
- Another expert warned that longer naps might be a sign that a person is not getting adequate nighttime sleep.
The afternoon nap gets a bad rap.
Some see a siesta as a sign of laziness, low energy, or even illness.
But a new study suggests that afternoon sleep may make you mentally sharper if you’re over age 60.
Older adults who took afternoon naps scored higher on a cognitive test than those who didn’t nap, according to researchers.
The study, published in the journal General Psychiatry, looked at both physical and cognitive health among 2,214 people over age 60 residing in large cities in China.
Of these, 1,534 took regular afternoon naps while 680 did not.
The observational study found that the nappers scored “significantly higher” on the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE), a standardized dementia screening test that includes assessments of visuospatial skills, attention span, problem-solving, working memory, locational awareness, and verbal fluency.
The nappers performed particularly well in the latter three categories, according to the study led by Dr. Lin Sun of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Center at Shanghai Mental Health Center and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
“Sleep has a lot to do with your capacity to learn,” Davina Ramkissoon, wellbeing director of Zevo Health, told Healthline. “Napping helps your brain recover from burnout or overload of information. While taking naps, your brain clears out unnecessary information out of your brain’s temporary storage areas to prepare it for the new information to be absorbed.”
Source: healthline