Excessive napping and Alzheimer’s linked in study

(Manisha Vadali/ The Harvard Gazette) –– A new cohort study of older adults finds excessive daytime napping may signal an elevated risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital report a bidirectional link between daytime napping and cognitive aging: excessive daytime napping predicted an increased future risk of Alzheimer’s, and a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s sped up the increase in daytime napping during aging. The team’s results are published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

“Daytime sleep behaviors of older adults are oftentimes ignored, and a consensus for daytime napping in clinical practice and health care is still lacking,” said Peng Li of the Medical Biodynamics Program in the Brigham’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders. (…)