According to a recent study, a short regular afternoon nap by older people may help to improve their working memory, verbal fluency and locational awareness.
The study is based on the analysis of 2.214 healthy Chinese people aged 60+. The researchers found out that those who took an afternoon nap, had significant better cognitive performance than those, who didn’t nap.
In the study, an afternoon nap was defined as a period of sleep up to 2 hours, taken after lunch. However, the duration of the nap taken was not recorded. The average length of night time sleep was around 6.5 hours independently of an afternoon nap.
The researchers highlight that the study is observational and therefore it doesn’t establish the cause, but shows a relation between an afternoon nap and cognitive performance.
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