1 to 2 Naps a Week May Help Keep Your Heart Healthy, Study Finds

A study in Heart suggests one to two daytime naps a week promotes better heart health, reports NBC News . "We looked at healthy adults in Switzerland and found that people who take occasional naps — once or twice a week — had a lower risk for cardiovascular disease compared to people who were not napping at all," said the University Hospital of Lausanne's Nadine Häusler. The researchers monitored about 3,500 subjects between 35 and 75 over five years, with about 20 percent taking naps once to twice weekly. People in that frequency had a 48 percent reduced risk for heart attack, stroke, or heart failure. Nap length was apparently irrelevant to these findings. "It could be that these people who nap once to twice a week are those who make napping a priority, because they know they don't sleep enough during the week," noted University of Colorado Boulder Professor Céline Vetter. Häusler added, "Our best guess is that a daytime nap just releases stress from insufficient sleep."