Perhaps that nap isn’t the best thing for you
Many of my patients first coming to see me for various health concerns, including a persistent afternoon fatigue that has the couch beckoning, are aware that afternoon naps aren’t normal; at least in western culture.
Now we have a recent study out of China that looks at a possible association between afternoon nap frequency and duration, and diabetes.
A study of 19, 567 Chinese men and women older than 50 looked at those who had elevated fasting sugar levels (diabetes) and how frequently they took naps. People who took naps 4-6 times per week had a 36% increased risk of diabetes. This worked out to what we call an absolute percentage increase of only 3.4%, as those who never napped had a baseline diabetes incidence of 11.7%, then those who napped 4-6 x per week had an incidence of 14.7%, and those who napped daily had an incidence of 15.1%. This was published in the journal Sleep in March 2010.
Small absolute increases in diabetes numbers, but significant from a statistical point of view, and still in relative terms, nappers had 36% more diabetes.
Of course naps don’t cause diabetes, or at least we don’t think they do. I doubt they even contribute as a cause. But this study confirms what most already know, that naps may be indicative of persistent fatigue, which always is indicative of an underlying problem.
What’s more interesting in this study is that nappers still tended to sleep slightly longer in the night. It might be the trend toward increased sleep that could contribute to the above results.
Again, in the journal Sleep, this time in 2007, a Taiwanese study of 3079 patients looked at the most important outcome, death, and whether there was any relation among night time sleep, or an afternoon nap. This study found that those who slept longer than 10 hours (male) or 8 hours (female) had an increased risk of death. Afternoon naps were not associated with increased death (they did not look at any association with diabetes, as the above study did).
Once more, this study does not say that increased sleep duration causes more death, but goes to show that persistent fatigue, manifesting as longer sleep, can be a sign of underlying disease.
Husbands might also claim (probably incorrectly) that the study also shows that males should be allowed to sleep more than females.
Dr Eric Chan
www.pannaturopathic.com
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