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Science Says Napping For Longer Than This Amount Of Time Is Bad For Your Health

by Jake Cappuccino
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Napping's good for you, napping's bad for you, napping's good for you, napping's bad for you.

I love a good nap now and again, but I'm never sure if it's good or bad for my health; to me, napping is one of those topics that always seems to be flipping back and forth between being good for your health and being bad for your health. I guess that's because so many factors go into determining what is healthy and what is unhealthy.

Well unfortunately for chronic nappers out there, a recent study says napping is bad for your health, Cosmopolitan reports. BUT WAIT, there's a caveat, so don't give up your beloved naps just yet.

According to the study from the American College of Cardiology, it's the long naps that will kill you.

In an analysis of data from 21 studies of 307,237 people, researchers linked naps longer than 40 minutes with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, which is basically a collection of bad conditions like high blood pressure and cholesterol, more belly fat and high blood sugar.

Having those conditions then increases the risk of developing heart disease and type-2 diabetes.

Tomohide Yamada, a diabetologist at the University of Tokyo and the study's lead author, said,

Taking naps is widely prevalent around the world. So, clarifying the relationship between naps and metabolic disease might offer a new strategy of treatment, especially as metabolic disease has been increasing steadily all over the world.

Though Yamada's study makes the case long naps are bad for you, it also found napping for fewer than 30 minutes slightly decreased the risk of developing those nasty health conditions. But, the scientist added that researchers aren't sure if short naps actually are good for you.

Yamada explained,

Sleep is an important component of our healthy lifestyle, as well as diet and exercise. Short naps might have a beneficial effect on our health, but we don't yet know the strength of that effect or the mechanism by which it works.

Basically, as long as you keep your naps under 40 minutes, it seems you should be totally fine, so nap on, nappers!

Citations: Napping For This Long is Seriously Bad For Your Health (Cosmopolitan), Long-Naps, Daytime Sleepiness Tied to Greater Risk of Metabolic Syndrome (American College of Cardiology)