The researchers found that the nap would be associated with better verbal fluency and facilitate working memory.
Often, after a meal, you give in to the call of a nap. According to the results of a recent study, you do well. Indeed, it seems that taking a regular afternoon nap is linked to better mental agility. The findings were published in the online journal General Psychiatry.
Indeed, this nap seems to be associated with better verbal fluency and greater working memory. The researchers point out that as the years go by, sleeping habits change and naps become more frequent. They could be a solution to limit cognitive decline and dementia in the elderly.
To find out, the researchers explored data from 2,214 healthy people, aged 60 or more, residing in several major cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai and Xian. Of these, 1,534 took a regular afternoon nap. All participants underwent a series of health checks and cognitive assessments to check for dementia. The average duration of nighttime sleep was approximately 6.5 hours in both groups.
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Better verbal fluency
Nap means a period of at least five consecutive minutes of sleep but not more than 2 hours, and taken after lunch. The researchers asked participants how often they napped during the week, ranging from once a week to every day. Cognitive performance scores were significantly higher in the nap adepts. Indeed, there were significant differences in location awareness, verbal fluency, and memory.
In this study, the researchers did not note the length or timing of naps. To justify their observations, they put forward some explanations. One theory is that inflammation mediates between midday naps and health problems, inflammatory chemicals have an important role in sleep disturbances, the researchers note. They explain that sleep regulates the body’s immune response and napping is considered an evolved response to inflammation. So people with higher levels of inflammation also nap more often.
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