People who nap frequently have 48% higher risk of developing dementia: Study

Do you like to take a nap every day? How often do you end up taking them? While of course they have their benefits, they can help combat fatigue, enhance mood, so on and so forth. Let's tell you more about what a new study has found. This study published and it was basically conducted by researchers from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They used the 10-year data of nearly 1,000 Americans aged 65 and above who did not have dementia at the outset. And according to their findings, people who nap frequently, that's almost every day, had a 48% higher risk of developing dementia as compared to those who rarely or never napped. On the other hand, unintentional sleeping, which basically implies falling asleep without meaning to, was associated with a 39% higher risk, 39% higher risk of dementia. Crucially, the researchers believe that there is a two-way relationship between napping and dementia risks. Let's just break this down further. While napping is a risk factor for dementia, the study claims that degenerating brain regions that basically regulate wakefulness may lead to more napping. And according to the researchers, monitoring napping could help identify older adults who have a higher risk of developing dementia in the future. At the same time, the study emphasizes that these findings are only observational. More research is required to determine whether changing sleeping habits could result in a positive impact on a person's health. It's also worth pointing out here that dementia is currently the seventh leading cause of deaths worldwide, with 10 million new cases added every year.