Siestas May Help Health

A nap a day may just keep the doctor away, according to a study released this week by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Athens Medical School.

Because midday napping is a common practice in Mediterranean culture, researchers studied more than 23,000 Greek adults for an average of six years and found that subjects who indulged in regular snoozes were 37 percent less likely to die of heart disease than those who pushed through the day without a nap.

Michael Irwin, a co-author of the study and psychiatry professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience at University of California, Los Angeles, said that there are cardiovascular benefits to getting enough sleep every day.

“There is a link between poor sleep and cardiovascular mortality,” said Irwin. “Naps taken during the day were associated with lower cardiovascular mortality.”

Irwin said that the study has particularly important repercussions for Americans. Average nightly sleeping time in the United States has progressively decreased over the past century by nearly 50 minutes, he said.

A loss of only a few hours sleep can cause cardiovascular inflammation, according to Irwin, and it is this inflammation that is thought to eventually lead to cardiovascular problems later in life.

Concentration, lower fatigue, and lower blood pressure are also benefits of getting enough sleep, which, according to Irwin, is nearly 7.2 hours for the average person.

Irwin added that napping has historically received little attention compared to diet, which is also crucial to heart health.

Katherine A. Koh ’09 agreed with the study’s conclusions.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said Koh. “A lack of sleep now will certainly have negative consequences eventually.”

While the conclusions apply particularly to its male subjects, a correlation between gender, napping and heart health could not be drawn due to incongruities in the female sample population, according to the study.