Are Naps the New Four-Letter Word?
Napping has long been seen as a productivity hack. In many developed countries, taking an afternoon nap is associated with lower stress, relaxation, and longevity. It evokes the idea that you can give yourself a socially acceptable one-hour break in the middle of a busy day and turn it into a source of rejuvenation, increased brain power, and strength. But daytime naps over 30 minutes have a dark side.
In a study published last week by Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, 86,000 healthy adults in midlife were followed using wearable devices for 11 years. The participants who experienced longer, irregular, or midday-heavy naps (between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.) had significantly higher mortality rates. Why? Because daytime napping can be a red flag indicating something problematic happening inside the body.
I first saw this while working for my father at his very successful mortgage banking technology company. He was deeply proud of his afternoon “power nap,” which he took daily on his office couch. It was a routine part of his day—something he looked forward to after lunch. One day, he called me into his office and asked how to spell a common word for an email he was writing. He seemed tired and frustrated.
“Dad, you look exhausted,” I said.
With weary eyes, he looked up from his desk. “I am,” he sighed.
“How much sleep are you getting at night?” I asked, a bit concerned.
“Not much. Maybe three or four hours,” he said in a soft, defeated voice. “I fall asleep easily, but then I wake up and can’t get back to sleep. So I get up, do emails, watch TV, work—anything but go back to sleep.”
For the first time, I could see how chronically exhausted he was becoming. His shoulders slumped; his head hung low. Then he dropped a bomb on me.
“I can’t seem to remember how words are spelled. In fact, I can’t seem to find my words very easily anymore.” A shiver of fear ran down my spine. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t realize how deeply his poor nighttime sleep and daily naps were connected—until it was too late.
A year later, after countless CT scans, MRIs, and visits to dozens of doctors, we finally had an answer for my father’s quickly disappearing language skills: a diagnosis of cognitive impairment due to progressive frontotemporal lobe dementia. He had no genetic risk factors, no family history of Alzheimer’s or dementia, no brain trauma. It was a complete and total shock.
In researching for my book, Powerful Sleep – Rest Deeply, Repair Your Brain, and Restore Your Life, I discovered that the two biggest factors in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia are poor nighttime sleep and the body’s desperate need for daytime naps.
The need to nap tells a deeper, darker story. Because the brain and body are hardwired to experience deep rest and REM cycles at night, missing those cycles causes the entire system to begin breaking down. First come increased cravings for carbs and sugar—your brain crying out for quick hits of glucose to stay awake. This causes blood sugar spikes that can lead to metabolic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and chronic inflammation. Next, energy levels plummet, and exercising begins to feel like a Herculean feat. The body stores excess calories, contributing to both weight gain and muscle loss. Without regular movement, stress levels skyrocket. Cortisol remains elevated into the evening, making it harder to fall—and stay—asleep.
Eventually, the essential nighttime processes of cleaning, repairing, and regenerating the brain, heart, and gut begin to fade. The system breaks down. Chaos follows. Cue the desperate need for a long midday nap.
It’s like putting a piece of duct tape over a small crack in the concrete of the Hoover Dam. It might hold off disaster for a few minutes—or a few hours—but eventually, the wall will break, and the torrent of water will destroy everything in its path. That’s what happened to my father at the young age of 62.
I now see the need for a daytime nap as a signpost for a deeper issue. For women in midlife, these issues are often overlooked or dismissed by doctors and medical practitioners. Common causes include obstructive sleep apnea, low estrogen and progesterone levels, thyroid imbalances, poor sleep boundaries with partners, children, or pets, cortisol dysregulation, poor diet, and the use of alcohol or sugar as stress relievers. Many women also suffer silently under the weight of the Superwoman Syndrome.
The secret to high-quality nighttime sleep lies in your daytime habits. From the moment you open your eyes in the morning, you begin making choices that either support your sleep—or sabotage it.
I strongly encourage you to skip the daytime nap and instead take an honest inventory of your daily habits. Which ones support your sleep, and which ones are quietly destroying it? The more you prioritize deep, restorative rest, the more high-functioning, productive, creative, inspired, healthy, calm, and powerful you’ll become.
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