The 3 common sleep habits that increase your risk of dying young – as red flag raised over napping danger

YOU might think a quick kip during the day is harmless – or even healthy.

After all, in parts of the Mediterranean, daytime naps – or siestas – are seen as a good way to reboot your system during the post-lunch slump.

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Earlier this year, scientists from Texas, said that taking an afternoon nap can increase adults problem-solving brain power.

But now, new research from the US has flipped that idea on its head, suggesting that certain nap habits could actually raise your risk of dying young.

This isn’t the first time science has raised concerns – with many experts remaining wary of the adult nap.

Previous studies have linked daytime snoozing to a higher risk of diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.

Now, the latest findings, set to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting in June, have identified three key reasons why naps could be so dangerous.

“People who slept longer during the day, had irregular daytime sleep patterns, or slept more around midday and early afternoon were at greater risk, even after accounting for health and lifestyle factors,” lead author Dr Chenlu Gao, from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said.

This was especially the case for middle-aged and older adults.

The study tracked over 86,000 adults with an average age of 63, monitoring their sleep patterns using apple-watch-like wrist devices for a full week.

They found the average daytime nap lasted about 24 minutes, but those who regularly took longer naps or had wildly varying nap lengths from day to day faced a higher risk of dying sooner.

Napping most often around midday to early afternoon was linked to greater health risks.

“This contradicts what we currently know about napping, so further research on that link could be warranted,” Dr Chenlu added. Since mid-afternoon is usually the time experts recommend for napping,

The participants were followed for up to 11 years, during which time 5,189 people – about 6 per cent of the group – died.

The researchers adjusted for factors like age, sex, body weight, smoking, alcohol use, and how much people slept at night to make sure the links with napping weren’t simply due to those other risks.

Even after accounting for these, the patterns of longer, irregular, or midday naps still stood out as an influencing risk factor.

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Experts aren’t entirely sure why, but it could be that longer or irregular naps signal underlying health problems, or that they disrupt the body’s natural rhythms more than previously thought.

Other research has shown that poor sleep patterns can sometimes be a sign of other health issues, like heart disease, diabetes, or depression.

Both the NHS and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine say keep naps short – around 10 to 30 minutes – and take them before mid-afternoon (around 3 pm).

This helps boost energy without messing up your nighttime sleep or leaving you groggy.

But you give up napping for good, the experts note that more research is needed to fully understand the risks, especially since the current study can only show links, not cause and effect.