Simple practice can halve the risk of heart attack and stroke.
This information was reported by Ua-novosti , reports URA-Inform.
Most of us don't need convincing about the benefits of napping, but a number of studies have previously pointed to a possible link between napping and serious cardiovascular diseases and even type 2 diabetes.
Scientists from the University Hospital Center in Lausanne decided to shed some light on this issue and find out how the frequency of naps affects human health. They shared how a recent study can reduce the risk of heart attack.
For the study, which lasted more than five years, 3.5 thousand Swiss residents were selected who had never previously experienced serious problems with the cardiovascular system.
Some of them had the habit of sleeping during the day and did This is on average twice a week. Some took nap breaks every day, others had no daytime rest habits at all.
During the study, 155 different complications related to the work of the heart and blood vessels were recorded, and the risk of such complications was the lowest in the group whose participants slept during the day only once or twice a week: it decreased by 48% (even taking into account harmful habits, for example, smoking).
It is noteworthy that in the group of daytime nappers, whose participants took a nap five to six times a week during the day, the risk indicators did not change significantly, and in some cases, on the contrary, grew.
The authors of the study attribute this to the fact that such increased drowsiness may be a consequence of malfunctions in the body. That is, a certain part of this group was initially at high risk, although the people themselves did not suspect it before.
Another exception to the rule has been identified: the identified statistics do not concern people over 65 years of age, which scientists also associate with the general health of this group and the presence of more diseases in its representatives than in younger respondents.
Swiss scientists focused specifically on the frequency of daytime sleep: they did not set themselves the task of finding out the effect of its duration on the health of the experiment participants. This question, the scientists say, will be a topic for future research.
In the current study, participants slept between 5 and 60 minutes during the day. Most of them admit that 20 minutes of daytime sleep is quite enough to “recharge.”
The results of the new study contradict a number of other studies, the authors of which pointed out the danger of the state after waking up, when a sharp jump in blood pressure that can lead to problems with the heart. However, Swiss scientists did not find such a pattern.
Scientists are not able to describe in detail the mechanism of the positive effect of daytime rest on the body. Most likely, we are talking about getting rid of the stress loads that accumulate during the day, improving the emotional state due to a break from work, as well as compensating for sleep lost at night.
Recall that we previously reported how to strengthen blood vessels and the heart: the doctor said what to include in the diet.