Long Naps and Frequent Daytime Sleeping May Increase Mortality Risk: What You Need to Know

Excessive daytime napping, particularly when long and frequent, may signal an increased risk of all-cause mortality in older adults, according to recent research using objective measures to track sleep patterns.

A prospective cohort study conducted by investigators from Mass General Brigham and Rush University Medical Center followed 1,338 community-dwelling older adults for up to 19 years to examine the relationship between actigraphy-assessed daytime nap characteristics and mortality risk. The study found that longer, more frequent, and morning naps were each associated with higher mortality rates.

Specifically, each additional hour of daytime napping per day was linked to approximately a 13% higher risk of death from any cause, while each extra nap per day was associated with a similar increase in mortality risk. These findings remained significant after adjusting for potential confounding factors such as age, sex, education, body mass index, and existing health conditions.

Researchers emphasized that their use of actigraphy — a method that objectively measures rest and activity cycles — strengthens the validity of the findings compared to prior studies relying on self-reported napping habits, which can be subject to recall bias or inaccuracies.

“Our study is one of the first to show an association between objectively measured nap patterns and mortality,” said lead author Chenlu Gao, PhD, an investigator in the Department of Anesthesiology at Mass General Brigham and an affiliated research fellow in the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders. “This suggests there is immense clinical value in tracking napping patterns to catch health conditions early.”

The study’s results, published in JAMA Network Open, indicate that excessive napping later in life may serve as an easily observable warning sign of underlying health issues, including neurodegeneration and cardiovascular diseases, rather than directly causing increased mortality.

While the observational design of the study prevents establishing a causal relationship between napping and mortality, researchers noted that frequent or prolonged daytime napping may reflect poor nighttime sleep quality or undiagnosed medical conditions that contribute to both increased napping and higher health risks.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults should aim for 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night to support physical and mental health. Insufficient sleep has been linked to a higher risk of developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke — factors that may drive older adults to compensate with daytime naps.

Between 20% and 60% of older adults regularly take daytime naps, making nap patterns a potentially accessible biomarker for monitoring health changes in aging populations. The researchers suggest that tracking nap duration, frequency, timing, and variability could offer a non-invasive method for early detection of declining health.

Further research is needed to determine whether interventions targeting sleep health or underlying conditions can modify the observed association between excessive napping and mortality risk. For now, the study underscores the importance of discussing changes in daytime sleep habits with healthcare providers, particularly when naps become longer, more frequent, or occur predominantly in the morning.