Hour-long daily naps linked to higher odds of death in older adults

On 21 October 2026 the journal Sleep Health published an analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Health in Vietnam, a survey of older adults followed from 2018 to 2023. The authors, from Academia Sinica and Taipei Medical University in Taiwan, Pennsylvania State University in the US, the Institute of Population, Health and Development in Hanoi and Nihon University in Japan, looked at 4,447 people with a mean age of about 70; 55.5% were women. At the start, two-thirds of them napped during the day, either as a habit or when they felt the need.

Instead of asking only whether people napped, the researchers split naps by length (under 30 minutes, 30 to 59 minutes, an hour or more) and by pattern: regular or as needed. They also scored night-time sleep on four dimensions: dissatisfaction with sleep, daytime sleepiness, interrupted sleep and a sleep duration outside the usual range. Both naps and night sleep were reported by the participants themselves. The outcome was death from any cause within four years. Over that time 514 people, 12% of the group, died.

Only one nap pattern stood out

After adjustment for night-time sleep and other characteristics, only regular naps of an hour or more were associated with higher odds of death: odds ratio 1.39 (95% CI 1.05–1.86). Short and intermediate naps, taken regularly or as needed, did not differ significantly from not napping at all.

Night sleep changed the picture for occasional long naps. The combination of as-needed long naps and poor night-time sleep was associated with higher mortality (odds ratio 1.32; 95% CI 1.01–1.72). In most nap groups the modelled probability of death rose as night-time sleep got worse. Two groups behaved differently: for regular long nappers it stayed high whatever their night sleep was like, and for regular short nappers it went down as night-time sleep scores worsened.

An odds ratio of 1.39 is not a 39% higher risk

The study used logistic regression, which compares odds of death rather than risk over time. When an outcome is as common as here, with 12% dying, the increase in actual risk is smaller than the odds ratio suggests. The lower bound of the confidence interval, 1.05, also sits close to no difference.

More important is the design. This is an observational study: nobody was asked to nap more or less. A long daily nap may be a consequence of something else rather than a cause, for example an illness that has not yet been diagnosed, so the habit can be a marker of poorer health. The authors' conclusion is limited to an association. Sleep was self-reported, follow-up lasted four years, and the cohort comes from one country with a strong napping culture. The published abstract does not list the adjustment variables or the funding. Two of the authors hold editorial roles at the journal; according to the paper, they had no part in its peer review.

Earlier studies point the same way

A 2020 meta-analysis in Sleep Medicine pooled 20 cohort studies with 313,651 participants, 38.9% of whom napped. Napping overall was associated with higher all-cause mortality (hazard ratio 1.19; 95% CI 1.12–1.26), and the longer the nap, the higher the mortality, in a roughly linear pattern. For cardiovascular disease the curve was J-shaped: the estimated hazard-ratio curve declined up to about 25 minutes a day and then rose at longer durations. These were observational cohorts too.

A genetic study published in March 2026 in Clinical Epigenetics used Mendelian randomisation, an approach that compares people by gene variants linked to a trait, here the tendency to nap. That tendency was associated with an older epigenetic age on the GrimAge clock and a higher frailty index. The method is meant to reduce the problem of illness causing naps; the abstract reports sensitivity analyses, but the study did not measure mortality. Neither study tested what happens when people change their napping habits.

What the data say about your own afternoon nap

In this cohort a nap under an hour was not linked to higher mortality, so the result is no argument against a short rest after lunch. What stood out was sleeping an hour or more every day, and, among people who napped long only now and then, doing so on top of poor night sleep.

If you or an older relative have started sleeping an hour or more every afternoon, or feel sleepy during the day after a full night, that is a reasonable topic to discuss with a doctor. The point is not to drop the nap on your own, but to understand what lies behind the need for it.

This material is for information only and does not replace a consultation with a doctor. Nothing in it is a recommendation to start, stop or change any treatment.

Sources

• Chen TY, Le TM, Buxton OM, Vu NC, Saito Y. Is napping harmless? Nighttime sleep health and all-cause mortality in community-dwelling older Vietnamese adults. Sleep Health. 2026. PMID 42907246

• Pan Z, Huang M, Huang J, Yao Z, Lin Z. Association of napping and all-cause mortality and incident cardiovascular diseases: a dose-response meta analysis of cohort studies. Sleep Med. 2020. PMID 32858276

• Zhang Z, Wang X, et al. Distinct roles of chronotype, daytime napping, and sleep duration in biological and functional aging: a univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization study. Clin Epigenetics. 2026. PMID 41821113