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Excessive napping indicates elevated dementia risk in older men

Older men who napped for 120 minutes or more per day were significantly more likely to develop dementia than those who napped for shorter durations, according to a presentation at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.

“Napping, both intentional and not, is very common in the elderly,” Yue Leng, PhD, from the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues wrote in their abstract. “Growing evidence suggests a close link between napping and adverse health outcomes in older adults. However, few studies have examined napping objectively, and little is known about the effects of napping on neurodegeneration.”

Leng and colleagues conducted a study to determine the association between napping duration and risk for dementia over 12 years in community-dwelling older men (n = 2,751; mean age, 76 years) who did not have significant cognitive impairment at baseline.

The researchers used actigraphy to measure napping, which was defined as 5 or more consecutive minutes of inactivity. They calculated duration of naps by totaling the accumulated time of naps outside of the regular sleeping period.

Participants were categorized as having dementia if they had a physician diagnosis of dementia, used Alzheimer’s disease medication or had a 1.5 or more mean change in global cognition test score.

Data indicated that 1,061 men napped for less than 30 minutes, 795 napped for 30 to 59 minutes, 642 napped for 60 to 119 minutes and 253 napped for at least 120 minutes per day. A total of 522 incident dementia cases were identified over the study period.

After adjusting for age, education, BMI, smoking, physical activity, depression, comorbidities, sleep medication use and baseline global cognition, the researchers found that men who napped for 120 minutes or more per day had a 52% increased risk for dementia (OR = 1.52, 95% CI, 1.04-2.34) than those who napped for less than 30 minutes per day.

When Leng and colleagues excluded cases of dementia within the first 2 years (n = 157), the ORs for dementia was 1.17 (95% CI, 0.87-1.56) for men napping for less than 30 minutes per day, 1.3 (95% CI, 0.96-1.77) for those napping for 30 to 59 minutes and 1.8 (95% CI, 1.21-2.67) for those napping for 60 to 119 minutes.

Adjusting for nighttime sleep duration, efficiency and hypoxemia did not affect the results.

“Excessive day napping among the elderly might be a novel early marker of future dementia risk,” Leng and colleagues concluded. – by Alaina Tedesco

Reference:

Leng Y, et al. Excessive napping and increased 12-year risk of developing dementia in older men. Presented at: Alzheimer’s Association International Conference; July 22-26; Chicago.

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