Do you ever wish that you could just take a snooze at work? Now, you may have a way to justify that.
This new study shows that a midday snooze may actually be good for your heart.
The study was done on 400 middle-aged individuals with high blood pressure, and tested to see how an hour-long nap at noon would affect their blood pressure.
Those who napped tended to have their systolic blood pressure drop by an average of five percent over the course of the day.
Even better, this made afternoon nappers’ blood pressure drop by a whole six percent while sleeping at night, more than those who didn’t nap.
These findings appear to even be true after the researchers accounted for factors like smoking history, alcohol and coffee intake, exercise routines, and salt intake.
Nappers, it seem, have less damage from high blood pressure in their arteries and heart as well, according to the lead researcher.
Though this seems like a pretty small number, study author Dr. Manolis Kallistrato wants people to know that even a small drop in blood pressure is significant. ##MN_RESP##
“Although the mean BP seems low, it has to be mentioned that reductions as small as 2mmHg in systolic blood pressure can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events by up to 10 percent,” he said.
“Our study shows that not only is midday sleep associated with lower blood pressure, but longer sleeps are even more beneficial…We also found that hypertensive patients who slept at noon were under fewer antihypertensive medications compared to those who didn’t sleep midday.”
Of course, one study doesn’t prove that naps can actually curb heart disease, but there is now a strong association.
So take that nap if you want to! It can’t do any harm.
