CATEGORY: SLEEP & RECOVERY
In a study of older adults, longer and more frequent daytime naps were linked to a higher risk of dying during the follow-up years, and naps taken in the morning were associated with more risk than naps in the early afternoon.1 The differences were modest and, because this was an observational study, they show an association rather than proof that napping itself shortens life. Still, the pattern suggests that how you nap may act as a quiet signal about your overall health.
What the Study Found
Researchers looked at all-cause mortality — death from any cause — and how it related to several features of daytime napping. Each additional hour of daily napping was associated with about a 13% higher risk of death over the study period.1 Each additional separate nap in a day was linked to roughly a 7% higher risk. Timing mattered too: people whose naps clustered in the morning had about a 30% higher risk than those who tended to nap in the early afternoon. Day-to-day swings in nap length, by contrast, were not clearly tied to risk. None of these numbers means a single nap is dangerous; they describe gradual trends across a large group.
How the Study Worked
The findings come from about 1,300 community-dwelling older adults, on average in their early 80s, who wore a wrist device called an actigraph — a watch-like sensor that tracks movement to estimate when someone is asleep or awake — continuously for up to two weeks. That short window of tracking captured each person’s typical napping habits in objective detail, rather than relying on memory. The researchers then followed the group for many years afterward, recording who died, and tested whether those early napping patterns lined up with later mortality. So the naps were measured briefly and precisely at the start, while the outcome unfolded over roughly the next two decades.
Why the Link May Exist
An important caution comes with this kind of research: it cannot tell whether heavier napping harms health or simply reflects health that is already declining. Long or frequent daytime sleep can be an early sign of underlying conditions — heart or lung problems, inflammation, poor nighttime sleep, or the fatigue that accompanies many illnesses. In other words, the extra napping may be a symptom rather than a cause. The researchers accounted for a range of factors, but reverse cause and effect remains a real possibility, which is why the takeaway is about awareness, not alarm.
Putting It in Perspective
Napping is common and often perfectly healthy, and this study does not show that a comfortable afternoon rest is a problem. What it highlights is that a shift toward longer, more frequent, or morning-heavy napping in later life may be worth noticing — the sort of change that can accompany a broader dip in health. If your napping habits have changed noticeably, that observation is something you can raise with your own healthcare provider, who can look at the fuller picture rather than any single number.
Key Takeaways
- In older adults, longer and more frequent daytime naps — and naps concentrated in the morning — were associated with higher death risk over time; this is an association, not proof of cause.
- Heavier daytime napping may be an early marker of an underlying health issue rather than the cause of poor outcomes.
- A clear change in your napping pattern may be worth mentioning to your doctor, who can consider it alongside your sleep quality and overall health.
- This finding is about awareness; it is not a reason to force yourself to stop resting when you are tired.
References
- Gao C, Cai R, Zheng X, Gaba A, Yu L, Buchman AS, et al. Objectively Measured Daytime Napping Patterns and All-Cause Mortality in Older Adults. JAMA Network Open. 2026;9(4):e267938. link