Undoubtedly, you know by now that sleep is one of the essential pillars of maintaining your physical and cognitive health as you get older. The irony is that for many of us, the older we get, the less well we sleep. A few statistics should jolt you awake: Adults who sleep no more than 5 hours a night face up to a 300% increased risk of heart disease. ⅓ of US adults report not getting sufficient sleep each night. And for those who are sleep-deprived, it may only take 3 days before you enter a state of becoming pre-diabetic. On the other hand, a recent study out of China reports that for those who consistently achieve a level of 7-8 hours of sleep per night, your chances of aging without major chronic illness and maintaining physical and cognitive functions into your later years are 18% higher than those with less sleep or declining levels of sleep. It’s easy to get anxious about your sleep patterns, and that worry may affect your ability to fall into a sound and restful slumber. It’s important to separate fact from myth when it comes to sleep. It’s a fact that experts recommend adults sleep 7-9 hours per night, and that recommendation does not change as you get older.  Insufficient sleep is directly associated with such medical concerns as high blood pressure, dementia, and type 2 diabetes. However, the way you sleep as an older adult may not indicate poor sleep habits. For example, If you wake up during the night that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve had poor sleep, or if you’re a bit groggy in the morning that may be normal. But what about if you feel the need to nap during the day? Does that mean you’re doing something wrong or that your body is not getting sufficient rest during the overnight hours?

We’ve previously posted that occasional naps during the day can be beneficial and not necessarily a symptom of something amiss. Most experts agree that a short, restorative nap of under 30 minutes can be as beneficial as a good night’s sleep: It can help encode information and consolidate memories, which happens during nighttime sleep, can improve mental processing speed, help lift your mood and help you pay better attention. Napping is even associated with a lower risk of cardiac death. Feeling a bit of a sleepy slump in the early afternoon is not uncommon, and correlates to your natural circadian rhythm, and as you probably know, in many cultures taking an afternoon nap is encouraged and supported. To correspond to this, it’s recommended that you avoid napping after 3:00 pm so as not to interfere with your usual evening sleep and that you set an alarm to end your nap in about 30 minutes, allowing you a therapeutic rest without putting you into the complete sleep cycle which requires something closer to 90 minutes. If you limit your nap to no more than 30 minutes, you are less likely to experience “sleep inertia” which is the grogginess or fuzziness you may experience upon initially waking. Some recommend that to avoid sleep inertia after a nap, you quickly get up and expose yourself to light or even try a “nappuccino,” which means taking a bit of coffee before settling in for your nap, so that the caffeine will kick in at about the time your nap ends. The conditions in which you nap are also important for getting the benefits of this short sleep. As with your overnight sleep, you are encouraged to nap in a cool, dark, and quiet environment.

Not everyone can easily nap, and estimates are that ⅓ -½ of adults are not able to take a quick nap outside of their normal sleep hours. And for those who simply can’t keep themselves awake without frequent naps, there may be some cause for concern. Certainly, that may indicate you are not getting sufficient sleep at night, which suggests you should look into the causes of your sleep deficiency. There’s a difference between an occasional planned restorative nap and involuntarily and frequently falling asleep during the day. Excessive sleepiness could be risky and is associated with such health problems as cardiovascular disease and a higher risk of all-cause mortality. Those who need naps are also thought to have a higher risk of cancer, frailty, and diabetes. So, the bottom line appears to be that the occasional short nap can be very beneficial but the need for frequent daytime naps may be a symptom of underlying health problems and certainly suggests that your regular overnight sleep be examined. 

And for those who get pleasure from their occasional daytime naps, you might want to see if you could turn that into a vocation: Take a look here at this 60-second documentary profiling Terry Lauerman, a retired gentleman who’s turned napping with cats into a post-retirement voluntary position!