Enhance cognitive health and delay aging with a 30-minute midday siesta 2023
According to the findings, the average difference in brain volume or size of the organ between persons designed to be habitual nappers and those who were not was comparable to 2.6 to 6.5 years of ageing. This was the case for both the people who were taught to nap regularly and those who did not.
“Our findings suggest that, for some people, short daytime naps may be a piece of the puzzle that could help preserve the health of the brain as we get older,” said Dr. Victoria Garfield, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing at UCL. “Our findings suggest that, for some people, short daytime naps may be a part of the puzzle that could help preserve the health of the brain as we get older.”
In the course of the research, the scientists examined 97 different DNA fragments, all of which were hypothesized to be responsible for an individual’s propensity to engage in habitual napping. Those who slept had a brain volume that was 15.8 cubic centimeters larger than those who did not snooze. This was discovered using MRI scans.
They could not find any correlation between napping and the size of the hippocampu
“This is the first study to attempt to disentangle the causal relationship between habitual daytime napping and cognitive and structural brain outcomes,” the authors of the study said. “There appears to be a causal link between habitual napping and larger total brain volume,” said lead scientist Valentina Paz, who is affiliated with both University of the Republic and University College London.
“I hope studies such as this one showing the health benefits of short naps can help to reduce any stigma that still exists around daytime napping,” stated Dr. Garfield. “This study shows that the health benefits of short naps.”c
