Overview
- A JAMA Network Open study of 1,338 older adults using wrist-worn trackers found higher all-cause mortality linked to longer, more frequent, and morning daytime naps.
- Risk rose an estimated 13 percent for each extra hour of daytime sleep and 7 percent for each additional nap, with morning nappers in their 80s facing about a 30 percent higher risk than early‑afternoon nappers.
- Participants wore the devices for at least two weeks to log nap timing, length, and frequency before researchers tracked outcomes over time.
- The authors say excessive or morning naps may point to sleep apnea, heart disease, neurodegeneration, depression, chronic pain, or a disrupted body clock.
- Researchers propose using wearable nap data for early risk screening, while stressing the results show association not causation and noting limits of movement-based trackers and a mostly white, very old cohort.