Benefits and risks of napping in older adults: A systematic review

Abstract

A growing body of evidence indicates that napping is common among older adults. However, a systematic review on the effect of napping on the elderly is lacking. The aim of this systematic review was to (i) determine how studies evaluated napping behavior in older adults (frequency, duration and timing); (ii) explore how napping impacts perceptual measures, cognitive and psychomotor performance, night-time sleep and physiological parameters in the elderly (PROSPERO CRD42022299805). A total of 738 records were screened by two researchers using the PICOS criteria. Fifteen studies met our inclusion criteria with a mean age ranging from 60.8 to 78.3 years and a cumulative sample size of n = 326. Daytime napping had an overall positive impact on subjective measures (i.e., sleepiness and fatigue), psychomotor performances (i.e., speed and accuracy) and learning abilities (i.e., declarative and motor learning). Additionally, studies showed (i) consistency between nap and control conditions regarding sleep duration, efficiency and latency, and proportion of sleep stages, and (ii) increase of 24 h sleep duration with nap compared to control condition. Based on the findings of the present review, there is minimal evidence to indicate that napping is detrimental for older adults' nighttime sleep. Future studies should consider involving repeated naps during a micro-cycle in order to investigate the chronic effect of napping on older adults.Systematic review registrationidentifier: CRD42022299805.

The combined effects of napping and self-selected motivation music during warming up on cognitive and physical performance of karate athletes

“…They were controlled by two experimenters during the experiment and were awakened by an alarm placed next to the bed. Upon awakening, the participants rated their sleep quality during the nap on a 100-mm visual analog scale (Monk, 1989), ranging from 0 (no sleep at all) to 100 (deep, uninterrupted sleep), with no specific cut-off point that indicated sleep (Romdhani et al, 2021a;Souabni et al, 2022b). Participants who were unable to initiate sleep, as indicated by a score of 0 on the visual analog scale, were excluded.…”

“…NREM plays a role in cellular 13.6 ± 1.3 #+++** 9.7 ± 1.4 ###+++£** 11.8 ± 1.4 ###+++£** ESS (au) 6.5 ± 1.3 7.4 ± 0.6 5.1 ± 1.02 ++£ 6.4 ± 0.9** 3.8 ± 0.7 # 5.2 ± 0.9 6.2 ± 0.9 ##+++£££ 6.9 ± 0. Frontiers in Physiology frontiersin.org repair, memory consolidation, motor skill recovery, and learning (Souabni et al, 2022a). Furthermore, naps may be associated with higher parasympathetic activity (Chen et al, 2020) that benefits executive functions.…”

“…It is possible that the time spent in NREM reduced homeostatic sleep pressure and sleepiness (Mantua & Spencer, 2017). Another plausible explanation is that napping reduces stress by decreasing cortisol levels (Botonis et al, 2021) and maximal heart rate during the exercise (Souabni et al, 2022b). Reportedly, music can stimulate arousal after a short daytime nap (Hayashi et al, 2004).…”

Daytime naps and depression risk: A meta-analysis of observational studies

“…Subgroup analysis showed that naps without definite timing were significantly associated with an increased risk of depression, while an afternoon nap trended toward an increased risk of depression but was not statistically significant. Opposite results were also obtained: a nap after lunch was a protective factor against depression (Souabni et al, 2022) and cognitive flexibility (Slama et al, 2015). A review in 2021 also found that an early afternoon nap (post-lunch dip time) improved cognitive performance and work efficiency (Dutheil et al, 2021).…”

“…A meta-analysis based on experimental studies in working-aged adults showed that cognitive performance increased after napping and that timing rather than duration influenced cognitive performance (Dutheil et al, 2021 ). Based on scientific evidence, the benefits of napping on psychomotor performance and learning abilities in older adults have also been discovered (Souabni et al, 2022 ). Cognitive impairment is an important symptom and outcome indicator of depression.…”