April 21, 2026
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Regularly napping in the morning is linked to a 30% higher risk of death for older adults, new research shows.
People who love to nap may be alarmed to hear that dozing off during the day is linked to an increased risk of death, according to a new study.
While short naps have been shown to be restorative, other research has found that excessive napping is associated with higher risk of long-term health issues, including obesity, metabolic syndrome and death from any cause.
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The new study, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, went even deeper, showing that in older adults, each extra hour of napping was linked to a 13% higher risk of death. It also found that each extra nap a day was associated with a 7% higher mortality risk and that morning napping was linked to a 30% higher risk of death.
"Our study is one of the first to show an association between objectively measured nap patterns and mortality and suggests there is immense clinical value in tracking napping patterns to catch health conditions early," the study's lead author, Chenlu Gao, said in a news release. Gao is a researcher at Mass General Brigham's anesthesiology department.
Gao and her colleagues used data from the Rush University Medical Center's Memory and Aging Project to track the napping patterns of more than 1,300 adults between 2005 and 2025. The participants, ages 56 or older at the start of the study, wore wrist monitors 10 days a year to track their daily activity, including napping between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.
The finding that frequent daytime naps, especially in the morning, were linked to increased risk of death from any cause suggests that tracking nap patterns may help predict risk of future health problems and to intervene early, the researchers said.
"Excessive napping is likely indicating underlying disease, chronic conditions, sleep disturbances, or circadian dysregulation," Gao said. "Now that we know there is a strong correlation between napping patterns and mortality rates, we can make the case to implement wearable daytime nap assessments to predict health conditions and prevent further decline."
