India, June 23 -- A new study by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that taking naps in the early afternoon may be linked to a higher risk of dying early.
"Our findings suggest that certain patterns of napping could serve as early indicators of declining health," lead investigator Chenlu Gao told Medscape Medical News.
During the study, the researchers followed about 86,000 adults, with an average age of 63. The participants wore sleep-tracking devices for the first few days.
The study defined daytime naps as any sleep that happened between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. It found that people, on average, took naps lasting about 24 minutes. Around one-third of these naps occured between 9 and 11 a.m.
Even after taking into ...