Napping for too long might be killing you

Experts have sung the praises of naps for many years, and 'power napping' at work or in between assignments have long been understood to increase productivity.

Earlier this month Akshat Rathi, science reporter for Quartz, made a video talking about his experiences with 'cheat sleeping' for a year – that is, cutting your sleeping hours almost in half by solely relying on naps.

But a new study by Dr Tomohide Yamada, which was presented at the American College of Cardiology's 65th annual scientific session, warns that napping for longer than 40 minutes increases the risk of type two diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Yamada’s research took data from over 300,000 people from all over the world, and analysis showed that sleeping excessively during the day increased the risk of type two diabetes by 50 per cent.

While a short nap of under 30 minutes had no affect on either of these factors, after the half hour point the risk of cardiovascular diseases "sharply" increased.

Yamada 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.

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