Long Daytime Naps Linked to Health Problems

Morning snoozers have highest risks, study finds

Kristen Fischer,

AARP

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Published May 05, 2026

An older adult man napping comfortably on a light-colored sofa while resting a book on his chest.

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Key takeaways

A study links morning naps, and longer ones, with higher mortality risk.
Irregular or occasional napping was not associated with higher risk.
Researchers say excessive daytime sleep may signal underlying sleep problems or medical conditions rather than healthy recovery.

For some, there’s nothing better than a great afternoon nap. Research shows that short afternoon naps can boost focus, memory and mood. And between 20 to 60 percent of older adults indulge in naps.

But a new study has found that regularly taking long naps during the day — especially in the morning — is linked to a higher rates of all-cause death, according to an April 20 report in JAMA Network Open.

While short afternoon naps can be beneficial, napping too long or too often can be a sign of health problems.

The new study found that:

Morning nappers had a 30 percent higher risk of dying, compared with those who snoozed in the afternoon.
Each additional hour of daytime napping per day was linked with a 13 percent higher mortality risk.
Every extra nap per day was linked with about a 7 percent higher mortality risk.
Napping irregularly (day-to-day variability in timing) wasn’t linked with higher mortality risk, the study found.

“These findings tell us that excessive napping may reflect underlying health issues,” says Chenlu Gao, the study’s lead author and an affiliated research fellow in the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders in Mass General Brigham’s Department of Medicine.

Researchers don’t have enough evidence to say that napping causes death, though, Gao points out.

Evaluating sleep

Scientists used data from 1,338 participants in the Rush Memory and Aging Project. The mean age of participants was 81, and the youngest was 56. They were all retired. Among them, nearly 80 percent were women.

The participants wore wrist sleep and activity monitors for an average of 10 days. Researchers examined their nap frequency, length, the time of nap and how naps varied by day. Gao isn’t sure if the findings could be generalized to younger age groups.

To characterize nap timing, they looked at the three-hour window with the most naps for each participant. Among participants, about 20 percent didn’t nap often, 15 percent napped less than two of the 10 days, and 84 percent nodded off less than 15 minutes per day. In other words, most of the participants did not have a napping habit, so what drove the naps is likely sleepiness resulting from medical conditions or poor sleep, Gao says.

“Our study focused on studying the habitual nap patterns rather than occasional naps,” says Gao along with coauthor Ruixue Cai, a research fellow at Mass General Brigham.

How much sleep is too much?

An occasional, short nap can be restorative and boost your day, evidence shows. Even an occasional long nap after a poor night’s sleep is different from regularly napping for extended periods during the day every day or nearly every day, Gao says.

Excessive napping during the day in older age has been linked to everything from neurodegeneration and diabetes to cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality .

An older study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that women 69 and up who took a nap every day had a 44 percent higher mortality risk, compared with those who didn’t sleep during the day.

Nap 101

Michael V. Vitiello, a professor emeritus in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington, says there is no evidence showing that an occasional nap, even if outside the "sweet spot" and/or for longer than 30 minutes, is harmful. The American Heart Association says a 30-minute snooze is OK, just keep it before 3 p.m.

“The sweet spot for napping is between 1 and 4 p.m., optimally seven to eight hours after waking up. This aligns with the body’s natural circadian dip in alertness,” Vitiello says.

Regular, short naps in the midafternoon are not harmful and may provide some benefits to daytime functioning by increasing energy and relieving sleepiness. But regular long naps, particularly those taken in the morning, are linked with increased mortality risk. Long naps may be indicators of underlying disease.

“We don’t fully understand why morning naps are ‘harmful,’ ” Vitiello says. “Likely they are not harmful in and of themselves, especially if infrequent.”

However, regular morning napping, particularly when the nap is long, may be a signal of an underlying disease, he adds.

After a rough night, it is OK to take a brief nap. What’s concerning is regularly experiencing rough nights and repeatedly having to catch up on sleep during the day, which could indicate some underlying sleep disorders or medical issues, Gao says.

She called for more interventional or experimental studies that can tell us whether changing napping patterns will influence health. A lot of research on the topic is correlational, meaning that it simply shows a link between two things, not whether one causes the other.

If you feel that napping improves how you feel during the day, go ahead and nap at the same time of day for under 30 minutes.

“Individuals who nap otherwise ought to consider changing their napping patterns accordingly,” Vitiello says, as well as getting evaluated for sleep problems or an underlying disease that might be causing daytime sleepiness.

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The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

Kristen Fischer is a contributing writer at AARP based at the Jersey Shore. She has also written for Health, WebMD, and McKnights and is the author of Zoo Zen: A Yoga Story for Kids.