In the mainland, many people have developed the habit of taking a nap since childhood, because if you don't take a nap in the afternoon, you will look very unenergetic.
And many people do feel that if they don't take a nap at noon, people will be confused in the afternoon.
But what people didn't expect was that there was a scientific study that also found that napping habits also have a lot to do with longevity.
And if you want to take a healthy nap, there are many things to pay attention to, especially after the age of 50.
So what is the relationship between napping and lifespan, and what do elderly people need to pay attention to when taking a nap, let's take a look.
1. Napping and longevity
In the mainland, at around 1 o'clock in the afternoon, whether it is a workplace or a home, people will take a nap.
It can be seen that napping has become a unique scenery in the mainland, and foreign guests also jokingly call us "nap culture." ”
If you ask everyone about the benefits of napping, I believe many people will answer that if you don't take a nap, you will be very tired in the afternoon, which is not conducive to work, of course, this is indeed a benefit.
But studies have found that napping is still a great way to maintain your health.
Because the person is in a state of relaxation during the nap, in this state the human brain can be temporarily rested, and the oxygen in the blood will be fully supplied to the brain.
Therefore, after waking up, people's energy will be fuller and work efficiency will be improved.
Napping can also protect cardiovascular health, which is not only related to improper diet, but also has a lot to do with people's mood.
The mood of the person is most stable during the nap, and the blood vessels are open in this state, thus contributing to better blood circulation.
This helps to better supply blood to the heart, brain and whole body, thereby reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
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In addition to this, napping can also boost immunity, protect skin, eyes, etc.
It is precisely because of so many benefits that the habit of napping has been promoted.
Since napping has so many benefits for the body, whether napping is related to longevity, with this question, scientists have done further research on napping.
To verify the relationship between napping and longevity, scientists took a large number of subjects and conducted long-term follow-up studies.
They divided subjects into a group that never took a nap, a short nap, and a long nap.
After a long period of tracking, scientists found that the group of people who took a short nap had the best health and the longest lifespan, followed by those who never took a nap, and the worst were those who took a long nap.
Scientists also found that people who took short naps had the lowest prevalence of chronic diseases, followed by people who never napped, and those who took long naps had the highest rates of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular.
In the end, scientists concluded that people are in better health by taking a nap for half an hour to an hour a day.
Because if you don't take a nap, you won't get rest, and if you take a nap for too long, your normal schedule will be disrupted, which is not conducive to your health.
In other words, if we want to live longer, we need to take a nap every day, but don't sleep too long.
Second, after the age of 50, don't take a nap for three times
After the age of 50, people come to a turning point in their health, when various chronic diseases are prone to appear one after another.
Therefore, it is very necessary to take care of the body at this time, and napping is the best way to take care of the body.
Although there are many benefits of napping, there are also some taboos in napping after the age of 50 as the person's body enters a special period.
The doctor reminds that people after the age of 50 need to pay attention to the following three points if they want to take a healthy nap.
1. Don't take a nap immediately after eating
Many people feel this way, and every time they just finish lunch, they always feel very sleepy.
This is mainly due to the fact that a large amount of blood flows through the gastrointestinal tract and the brain is temporarily deprived of oxygen in order to help the stomach and intestines better digest food just after eating.
Some people will rush to sleep because they feel sleepy, but they don't know that sleeping at this time is not good for the body.
Because the food has not been fully digested just after lunch, the nap food is easy to stay in the stomach for a long time.
As a result, it is easy to belch, heartburn, and hiccups, and if you take a nap immediately after eating for a long time, it is easy to cause digestive diseases.
Therefore, even if you are sleepy after eating, you should move a little and wait at least half an hour before taking a nap.
2. Don't nap on your stomach or sitting
Napping on your stomach or sitting is a habit developed by many office workers, because many people do not have a bed where they work, so they have to take a nap in a lying or sitting position in order to rest.
But maintaining these two nap positions for a long time is not good for your health.
When lying on the table for a nap, because the table is relatively low, people are usually bent over, so that the lumbar spine and cervical spine will be uncomfortable, and long-term such will form lumbar and cervical spondylosis.
At the same time, sleeping on the stomach is easy to squeeze the eyeball, and the eyeball is easy to cause eye disease if it is squeezed for a long time.
In addition, after sleeping on the stomach, people will be more dizzy when they wake up, which is not conducive to the recovery of energy.
Although sitting for a nap is not as squeezing the eyeballs as a nap on your stomach, the waist and neck of a person who sits for a nap are in a state of tension.
Sitting for a long time to take a nap not only does not have high sleep quality, but also easily damages the lumbar and cervical spine.
If you sit or take a nap on your stomach for a long time, it will not only hurt the lumbar spine and cervical spine, but also affect the normal blood circulation of the body, thus causing a series of physical problems.
Therefore, in the future, if possible, try to lie down and take a nap if possible, and if you really want to lie on your stomach or sit, you should also put a cushion.
3. Don't take a nap too late
Some middle-aged and elderly people have a habit of walking around after lunch every day, or watching TV.
So I postponed the nap time and waited until I was tired of walking or watching and then went to take a nap, in fact, this kind of nap is not good.
Because although the nap time is not necessarily long, the nap time is too late, sometimes even when it is already dark, so the quality of sleep at night will be affected.
And if the elderly can't sleep at night for a long time, get sleepy during the day, and make up for sleep at noon, the biological clock will be disrupted.
It will also affect the normal metabolism and circulation of the body, and in the long run, it is easy to cause problems such as high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and blood viscosity.
Therefore, the nap must not start too late, it is best to take a nap between 1 and 2 pm, and later than this time will affect the night's sleep.
3. Who should not take a nap
Although napping is a good habit, this habit is not suitable for everyone, if some people with special bodies take a nap, it will affect their health.
The following groups of people should not take a nap.
1. People who suffer from insomnia
People who suffer from insomnia are miserable, tossing and turning until dawn when everyone else is asleep.
People with insomnia usually have a very difficult time falling asleep, and they are prone to waking up with a little stimulation during sleep, and in this case, they will not be able to fall asleep at night if they take a nap during the day.
Although such people may feel tired and sleepy during the day, if they take a nap, the insomnia will worsen at night.
Therefore, people with insomnia should not sleep at noon, and if they feel tired, they can sit and rest for a while.
2. People with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases
The general impression is that the brain and heart are at rest when taking a nap.
It stands to reason that napping can protect the cardiovascular system, but why can't patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases take a nap?
If we look closely, we will find that many cerebral infarctions and myocardial infarctions also occur during nap time.
Because although people seem to be very relaxed during naps, at this time, people's metabolism and circulatory ability are also weakened, and the blood flow speed is also slowed down.
If you have cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, the blood supply to the heart and brain is likely to be insufficient during the nap process.
In addition, such people tend to sleep for too long, so related diseases are prone to flare-ups.
From this point of view, it is best for people with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases not to take naps.
3. People who are physically obese
With the improvement of people's living standards and the increasing variety of diets, the incidence of obesity is also increasing.
However, obesity has a great impact on physical health, and it increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, metabolic diseases, and lower back and leg diseases.
People who are overweight have a big difficulty in controlling their weight, that is, they can't control their appetite and are often tired and want to sleep.
Because they eat too much, the blood often has to help the stomach digest food, and the brain is often in a state of ischemia.
However, if such people want to control their weight, their bodies must be consumed, but when they take a nap, the whole person is in a static state, which is not conducive to the consumption of body energy.
Therefore, in order to better consume energy and control weight, people who are too obese should not take a nap.
4. Elderly people over eighty years old
One of the phenomena of human sleep is that the sleep time gradually decreases with age, and generally speaking, the healthy sleep time of adults is eight hours.
However, after the age of eighty, due to the decrease in melatonin, the consumption of the body also becomes smaller, so the sleep time will also decrease, which is the reason why many elderly people get up early.
Older people get less sleep at night, and it is usually more difficult to fall asleep at night if they take a nap at noon, so it is recommended that people over 80 years old do not take a nap.
The habit of taking a nap is relatively common in the mainland, and this habit has also been scientifically proven to be beneficial to physical health, so it is worth advocating.
But the good habit of taking a nap does not mean that we must strictly abide by it, for example, sometimes people do not feel sleepy, or they are too busy at noon and miss the best time to take a nap, at this time we should choose not to sleep.
It should be noted that although taking a nap is a good way to maintain health, this habit is not suitable for everyone, so how to take a nap should also be based on your own situation.
Resources
Wonderful Materia Medica 2023-09-12"Napping may affect lifespan! Reminder: After the age of 50, keep in mind the "three don'ts" of napping"
Dr. Zhang talks about health 2024-02-09"Napping may affect lifespan! Reminder again: after the age of 50, remember the "three don'ts" for napping"
Dr. Xu of TCM Hospital 2022-12-26"Napping increases the risk of stroke? Can you sleep when you are sleepy at noon? Let's take a look"