Siestas may lower heart attack-related death rates
Healthy working men who take time out for an afternoon nap are one third less likely to die of heart-related causes than their peers who skip a siesta, Greek researchers report.
These findings must be confirmed before naps can be recommended for all, Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.
"If the finding were to be confirmed, it would turn out to be an important one,” he added, noting that the effect of napping seen in the study was similar to the mortality-reducing effects of physical activity. “It’s a major effect that you can accomplish with the rather pleasant experience of napping.”
Past research on naps and mortality has had mixed results, Trichopoulos and his team note in the February 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. One potential confounding factor is the sick people tend to take afternoon naps, while people who take siestas may be less physically active than those who don’t.
To avoid these problems, the researchers looked at 23,681 healthy men and women for whom they had detailed information on physical activity, diet, and other heart disease risk factors, as well as napping habits. Study participants were followed for an average of just over six years.
Overall, men who took siestas of any frequency for any length of time had a 34 percent lower risk of death from heart-related causes during the study’s follow-up period, the researchers found. Men who occasionally took naps had a 12-percent lower risk of death from heart-related causes, while those who napped at least three times a week for at least 30 minutes had a 37 percent reduced risk.
Limiting the analysis to working men strengthened the siesta effect, the researchers found. Naps also appeared to reduce women’s coronary mortality risk, but to a lesser degree.
The researchers conclude that their findings indicate that among healthy adults, siesta, possibly on account of stress-releasing consequences, may reduce coronary mortality,” the researchers conclude.
About half of Greeks still manage to take a siesta, Trichopoulos noted in an interview. While he said the current findings don’t mean that everyone should rearrange their schedules to squeeze in a siesta, he added, people who nap now continue to nap.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, February 12, 2007.
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