Shanghai: Chinese experts, after researching more than 2,000 elderly people, say that taking a nap in the afternoon improves mental health and reduces the risk of various mental illnesses.
According to research published in the latest issue of the research journal General Psychiatry, Chinese scientists included 2,241 local volunteers aged 60 or older in their study.
The volunteers were divided into two groups: one group slept in the afternoon, before evening, while the other group volunteers stayed awake.
During the study, their mental abilities were also tested through various mental tests.
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The results of the experiments showed that people who slept for half an hour or less in the afternoon had significantly better overall mental health than those who did not sleep. Outward signs of improved mental health include aspects such as active memory, fluency in speech, and location awareness.
The study also found that people who took a nap for about 30 minutes or less a day in the afternoon had a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than adults who did not take a nap during that time. It was 84% less than the competition.
It should be noted that Alzheimer’s disease is a mental illness in which the memory and thinking abilities are gradually lost.
Usually between the ages of 60 and 65, the disease is incurable and progresses over time. As a result, a person with Alzheimer’s suffers from a number of other serious mental illnesses, including a serious and life-threatening illness such as dementia.
However, scientists warn that people who take a nap for two hours or more in the afternoon have a higher risk of developing mental illness.
At the moment, it is too early to say whether the short nap in the afternoon has the same effect on middle-aged and young people.
There is a general consensus among medical experts that taking a balanced nap during the day improves mental health.