Taking an Hour Long Afternoon Nap Improves Memory and Cognition in Older Adults
I read the article Taking an Hour Long Afternoon Nap Improves Memory and Cognition in Older Adults. This article talked about a study that used about 3,000 Chinese adults aged 65 and older. More than half the people in the study said they took afternoon naps about 30 to 90 minutes long (on average around 60 minutes). All the participant took tests to access their mental status. These tests included simple questions such as the date, and basic math problems. They were also asked to memorize and recall words. The results found that individuals who took naps did better on the mental tasks compared to people who did not take a nap. Even the length of the nap affected the results. Participants who slept longer or less than an hour decreased in their mental ability.
The
findings of this research made sense that naps would increase mental abilities.
I thought this because taking a nap in the afternoon gives your brain a “break”
to release any stress that could be negatively affecting you. I was surprised that
participants who slept an hour did the best on the mental tasks since I was
always told taking around a 20 minute nap was best. When I take a nap too long,
I wake up even more tired and not motivated although the affects may be
different for older people. A question I raised while reading this article was
whether the results would be the same with people of all different races or
areas of the world since this study was done with only Chinese adults.
Link: http://neurosciencenews.com/memory-napping-aging-5875/
I think this is an interesting article for everyone to read, because most people I know love taking naps after school/class, and this provides them with a scientific reason to do so. I think napping could also affect our memory because, as we've discussed in class, when we sleep our brain "prunes" away things that weren't important to make room for things that need to be remembered. By sleeping, we are essentially washing out our brain, making room for the more important stuff; possibly this process is responsible for napping having a positive impact on our memory and cognition. In relation to this information, I have also seen studies that indicate that studying right before you go to bed helps you retain the information better into the next day. However, this article states that the longer the nap, the less mental abilities the participants seemed to have afterwards. I wonder if there is a fine line where napping stops being beneficial for our memory/cognition and getting a full night's sleep begins being beneficial?
ReplyDeleteI find the results of the study very interesting because like you said, I was always told to take about a 20-30 minute nap. I agreed with you when you stated that you wake up feeling more tired when you take a nap that is longer than 30 minutes. Whenever I take a nap in between classes i feel more refreshed as long as it is a nap lasting only about 20-30 minutes. If I take a nap from 60-90 minutes I find myself not wanting to focus when I wake up. Often times, I just want to go back to sleep. In class, we talked about sleep and how sometimes you just wake up in the wrong part of your sleep cycle, even when you reach an adequate amount of sleep hours (8 hours). Maybe we wake up feeling more tired because we have reached a deeper stage of our sleep schedule and our bodies are preparing to go into a deep sleep, as if we were going to bed for the night. Subsequently, the deep sleep is interrupted when we wake up from a 60-90 minute nap which confuses the body because it was preparing to go into a deep sleep state.
ReplyDeleteThe part of the article about remembering information better after a nap is interesting. Like Heather said, maybe in the nap our brain is washing out information and making room for more important information. As research tells us more about the benefits of napping linked to memory, maybe one day there will come a time where there are school wide napping time frames. This time frame would ensure that there is no class on campus for about an hour. Until that day, I feel like this is valuable information for current students to take into account when planning their schedules of classes because this particular study show's that a nap can be helpful for memory retention.
This article caught my interest because I am one to take naps throughout the day because I always feel so tired. Although this study is referring to older adults, I wonder how to experiment would differ if it was done with younger adults. Older adults who are retired have more time in their day to take naps and it has been proven that they perform significantly better as well. But, how would this experiment compare to a college student? I always heard the best way to take a nap is for about twenty minutes. This allows you to rest your eyes and not enter a deep sleep. As we have learned in class, when deep sleep or REM sleep is interrupted, it actually hurts us because it did not give our mind the time to restore. Also, older adults have more time on their hands to spend sleeping. Young adults tend have a busier life style, so it could be difficult to fulfill a complete hour nap. From personal experience, I have a three hour gap between my night class that starts around 3:30 PM. At around 2:00 PM, I take an hour nap on campus and I do feel more refreshed and more alert for my night class that is three hours long. I think this study should be conducted with multiple trials and different types of subjects. This could help improve the school systems, even high school students could benefit from this. My high school did not offer study hall. It is hard to wake up at 6 AM, go to school for eight straight hours, and either go to work or do after school activities. Having a small break could help the students improve not only their education, but also mental health.
ReplyDeleteAs a person who takes naps very frequently, I found this article to be particularly interesting. Like you, I was surprised that taking longer naps (such as ones that were an hour or longer) were more effective in increasing mental capability. Usually, if my naps are longer than an hour, I wake up groggy and possibly even more tired than before. I think this study touches upon principles of human development. Older adults and seniors typically take long naps during the day, while individuals around my age (18-21) usually must take shorter naps in order to function efficiently. One question that was raised for me was: Is this research being applied to the prevention of mental degradation disorders? Take Alzheimer's for example. It is a disease that affects the elderly, and causes them to essentially lose touch with reality. It gets worse over time, and is characterized by brain inactivity. Since this study showed that sleep time could affect thinking ability in older adults, I think it would be appropriate for the researchers who conducted this study to broaden their perspective, and work towards the advancement of methods to slow or possibly even prevent such degenerative diseases in the elderly.
ReplyDeleteI found this study interesting because I feel like many college students are frequent nappers, I know I am. Like Krystal I think it would be insightful to conduct a study like this on college students. I find that I only wake up groggy when I have an alarm set and have to get up at a certain time, usually my naps are around two hours. I wonder if a nap that long would have the same effects as a 60 minute nap.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Maureen! Wow, I didn't realize there were so many nappers here. While napping during the day may provide several benefits, it should not be used to replace a good night's sleep. I think many young people don't get enough sleep, and try to make up for it with a quick nap in the afternoon. While this may produce some short term improvements in memory and cognitive function, the long term effects of not getting enough sleep can be devastating. According to an article on Healthline, not getting enough sleep can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, weakened immune system, weight gain, and mental illness, just to name a few.So while I think the occasional nap may be a good thing, it is no replacement for 7-9 hours of quality sleep every night.
ReplyDeleteChristopher Mullin
Reference - http://www.healthline.com/health/sleep-deprivation/effects-on-body
This article really helps confirm the difference between my boyfriend and I. We are both very different nappers. I generally nap 2 to 3 hours and him about 30 to 45 minutes. These differences show greatly after we wake up from the nap. I am curious as to if they determined how well or how much each of the participants slept on average per night. If a person averages more or less hours slept per night, that could affect their average nap time. Another thing that could affect their nap time is how well they slept the night before and how rigorous their activity was prior to the nap. Overall, I think it is a very interesting find and is something to consider for my current and future naps.
ReplyDeleteThe results of this study are very interesting! I personally do not take many naps during the day because I feel that it negatively affects my nighttime sleep. However, on days where I may not have gotten enough sleep the night before, I'll take a nap. The results that showed longer naps being more beneficial really surprised me because whenever I take a nap that is around 1 hour or more, I feel terrible when I wake up. When I take shorter "power" naps, 30 minutes at the most, I find it easier to wake up and function afterwards. I would really like to see how this study applies to more age groups, especially college age people and how naps may affect the mental health and sleep cycles of college students.
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