If you feel the overwhelming urge to crawl under the covers during the day, don’t hold back.
- Napping on weekends helps keep your heart healthy, new study finds.
- After a 14-year follow-up period, the researchers found that the group that made up for the most sleep loss on weekends was 19 percent less likely to develop heart failure, atrial fibrillation and stroke.
- In France, heart disease is the second leading cause of death after cancer, being responsible for more than 140,000 deaths each year.
Napping on the weekend can significantly reduce the risk of developing heart disease, a new study finds.
“The association is even more pronounced in people who regularly lack sleep during the week,” said Yanjun Song, a co-author of the study and a member of the State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease of the National Center for Cardiovascular Disease at Beijing Fuwai Hospital, in a press release.
What heart diseases does napping protect against?
To reach this conclusion, his team of researchers used data from 90,903 people listed in the UK Biobank, a database that tracks the health of more than 500,000 Britons aged 40 to 69.
Participants’ sleep data was measured using watches. They were then divided into four groups, from those who did not nap on weekends to those who napped the most.
After a 14-year follow-up period, the researchers found that the group that made up for the most sleep loss on weekends was 19 percent less likely to develop heart failure, atrial fibrillation and stroke.
“Although the study has limitations, such as focusing exclusively on the UK population, its results highlight the negative impact of chronic sleep deprivation on cardiovascular health,” said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, medical director of Atria New York City and associate professor of medicine.
Napping and heart disease: how can we explain this link?
“These results could be explained in part by the relationship between sleep and healthier blood sugar or blood pressure levels, better food choices and a lower risk of obesity,” analyzed Dr. Nour Makarem, assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
“Adequate sleep is also associated with better psychological health, which in turn is linked to a lower risk of heart disease,” she adds.
In France, heart disease is the second leading cause of death after cancer, being responsible for more than 140,000 deaths each year. “They are also one of the main causes of healthcare consumption with more than 15 million people treated. There are multiple prevention levers for this multifactorial risk,” indicates the Ministry of Health.
