{"id":941459,"date":"2026-10-22T01:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T01:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/941459\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T01:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T01:08:10","slug":"frequent-daytime-naps-linked-to-48-greater-risk-of-dementia-study-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/941459\/","title":{"rendered":"Frequent daytime naps linked to 48% greater risk of dementia, study says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brian<\/p>\n

Older adults who nap frequently may face a higher risk of dementia, according to a 10-year study of nearly 1,000 Medicare beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

Researchers found that people who napped most days or every day had a 48% higher risk of developing dementia than those who rarely or never napped.<\/p>\n

The study, recently published in The Journals of Gerontology<\/a>, followed 995 adults age 65 and older who showed no signs of cognitive impairment when researchers began tracking them in 2013. <\/p>\n

Related video above | Women over 50: Never ignore these Alzheimer’s signs<\/p>\n

Falling asleep unintentionally during the day was linked to a 39% higher dementia risk, the study found,<\/a> while naps lasting 30 minutes or less were linked to a 40% higher risk.<\/p>\n

The connection between longer naps and dementia was less clear after researchers accounted for nighttime sleep quality.<\/p>\n

The link between frequent napping and dementia remained even after researchers considered participants\u2019 health, nighttime sleep and other factors. It also held when researchers excluded people diagnosed with dementia during the first five years of the study. That suggests changes in daytime sleep may appear years before a dementia diagnosis, although the study cannot show why the two are connected, researchers said.<\/p>\n

The researchers said frequent napping may also be an early sign of changes in the brain rather than a cause of dementia.<\/p>\n

Researchers added the study does not mean that people who nap will develop dementia, and the findings do not establish that napping causes the disease. The team said future studies using wearable sleep monitors and clinical evaluations could help confirm the results.<\/p>\n

For now, researchers say changes in daytime sleep could be one clue to watch as scientists work to better understand dementia risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Older adults who nap frequently may face a higher risk of dementia, according to a 10-year study of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":941460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84],"class_list":["post-941459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}