“Elderly adults who napped at least once a day or more than an hour a day were 40% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those who did not nap daily or napped less than an hour a day” according to the study published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. – Co-senior author Dr. Yue Leng, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California.
Click here ( previous study by Leng ) to find links to 135 other studies on elderly napping. Leng’s study found when going to the link above, found that napping two hours a day raised the risk of cognitive impairment compared with napping less than 30 minutes a day.
Dr. Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic in the Center for Brain Health at Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine said “I think the public isn’t aware that Alzheimer’s is a brain disease that oftentimes causes changes in mood and sleep behavior,” adding that excessive napping may be one of the many clues that a person could be on the road to cognitive decline, and trigger an in-person evaluation with a treating physician. Dr. Isaacson was not involved in the study talked about here.