Napping characteristics and incident dementia

(academic.oup.com)

27 points | by bookofjoe 3 hours ago ago

20 comments

  • thisisauserid 2 hours ago

    Unintentional napping was associated with possible/probable dementia.

    Intentional napping was not.

    One could easily reverse cause and effect here.

    • causal 2 hours ago

      Yeah I feel like the results could be stated more clearly. At any rate this doesn't seem to associate risk with any chosen behavior.

    • kirth_gersen 2 hours ago

      It seems to me that perhaps the data better supports that dementia is correlated with unintentional and short naps. This makes it sound like they think it is causal, which I doubt.

    • ahartmetz 2 hours ago

      Easily. I'm 80% sure that they did reverse cause and effect.

    • tyrabound an hour ago

      Yes, ironically they even admit possible reverse causal effect along with many other causal variables. Frankly, this is not exactly stellar research in my view, at least with the rather reckless insinuations not supported.

  • sapientiae3 9 minutes ago

    I feel like “unintentional napping” should not be called napping…

    Napping for me means intentionally having a short sleep. I don’t know what unintentional napping is.

  • outworlder an hour ago

    "unintentional napping"

    I used to 'unintentionally nap' all the time since I was a teen.

    Then I discovered I had sleep apnea. No more napping. And dementia has been linked to sleep apnea.

    I wonder if this study is missing some quite big issues here.

  • reedf1 2 hours ago

    I am a frequent intentional napper (< 30 minutes). Am I right in reading that I am at baseline risk?

    • gwbas1c 2 hours ago

      I think we need to understand what intentional vs unintentional napping is.

      • Carrok 2 hours ago

        Is this not clear from the term?

        "I'm going to go take a nap in bed."

        vs

        "I fell asleep in a chair."

        • gwbas1c 41 minutes ago

          No, we need to know how the study defined them, not how you interpret them.

          In medicine, sometimes semantics are more important than you think.

        • readthenotes1 an hour ago

          Yet I intentionally nap in the chair when I become overcome with lassitude

          • IncreasePosts an hour ago

            Where do you nap when overcome with langour or ennui?

    • thisisauserid 2 hours ago

      See what I mean?

  • falsemyrmidon 2 hours ago

    I'd guess this goes back to not getting enough healthy sleep, which is a reason people nap.

    • an hour ago
      [deleted]
    • readthenotes1 an hour ago

      Except intentional napping, which could be "yawn, I slept bad last night; I'm gonna go take a nap" is not a risk.

  • 2 hours ago
    [deleted]
  • tt24 an hour ago

    Sleep apnea.

  • pengaru 44 minutes ago

    disclaimer: I didn't read TFA

    drive-by comment: unintentional napping seems likely to occur more in those failing to get actual restful sleep on the regular. Don't we already know chronic sleep deprivation correlates with dementia/alzheimers risk?