A new study published in JAMA Network Open on April 20, 2026, found that older adults who nap longer, more often, or primarily in the morning face a higher mortality risk over up to 19 years of follow-up.
The finding matters because roughly 60% of older adults nap regularly, and objective wrist-monitor data now tie specific nap patterns to measurable risk rather than treating naps as uniformly benign.
Researchers from Mass General Brigham and Rush University Medical Center tracked 1,338 community-dwelling older adults enrolled in the Rush Memory and Aging Project, with a mean age of 81.4 years and 76% female.
Participants wore Actical wrist monitors, motion-sensing devices that detect sleep and wake periods through accelerometer data, on their nondominant wrist for an average of 9.58 days, and investigators classified any daytime sleep episode between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. as a nap.
The device sampled motion at 32 Hertz and used the Cole-Kripke algorithm to identify sleep episodes, giving researchers minute-by-minute data on when and how long each person napped.
The team recorded 926 deaths, representing 69.2% of the cohort, during a mean follow-up of 8.30 years that extended up to 19 years.
Researchers found the mortality gradient strengthened across multiple nap dimensions, from total duration to nap frequency and timing.
Each additional hour of daytime napping carried a 13% higher mortality risk, with a hazard ratio of 1.13 and a 95% confidence interval of 1.04 to 1.23.
Each extra daily nap raised mortality risk by seven percent, with a hazard ratio of 1.07 and a 95% confidence interval of 1.02 to 1.13.
Older adults who napped primarily in the morning window, between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., faced 30% higher mortality than peers who napped in the early afternoon.
Day-to-day variability in nap duration showed no significant mortality link, with a hazard ratio of 1.01 and a confidence interval crossing 1.
The team adjusted findings for age, sex, education, sleep medications, nighttime sleep quality, chronic conditions, physical activity, race, ethnicity, and depression, and the primary results held in the fully adjusted model.
Researchers acknowledged the cohort's 93.3% white composition and urged replication in more diverse populations.
The morning-napping gap equated to roughly 2.5 years of additional biological age, a measure of physiological wear and decline that often predicts health outcomes more accurately than chronological age, according to the research team.
Nearly all participants, 99%, took some form of daytime nap during the monitoring period.
According to the Boston Globe, naps longer than one hour appeared more consistently associated with health risks, while shorter daytime rests showed more restorative patterns.
Lead author Chenlu Gao, an investigator in the Department of Anesthesiology at Mass General Brigham, emphasized that the findings reflect correlation, not causation.
The research team recommended that clinicians and caregivers track sudden shifts in nap duration or frequency rather than dismissing napping as uniformly healthy.
Gao advocated for deploying wearable nap assessments to detect early health decline, framing nap analytics as a screening signal rather than a lifestyle complaint.
Study authors said the findings add momentum to wearable-device research in geriatric care, where continuous motion data promises earlier warning of decline than annual clinic visits, potentially improving early diagnosis and intervention for age-related conditions.
Gao told Medical Xpress that excessive or morning-skewed napping likely signals underlying disease, chronic conditions, sleep disturbances, or circadian dysregulation rather than directly shortening life.
The Rush Memory and Aging Project began in 1997, and actigraphy data collection, the use of wearable motion sensors to track activity and sleep patterns, started in 2005 among its northern Illinois cohort of older adults.
Jaewon Jayden Lee
Grade 11
Libertas Scholars College Prep
