Dear friends
I found a very interesting article published by the Journal of The American Geriatrics Society on 6th January 2017 on the benefits of Napping with people over 65 years old.
Taking a nap , or like the French people say “la sieste” , is a matter of personal habit and also of national culture.
The French, Spanish , Italian people as well as other people living around the Mediterranean Sea are taking a daily nap in the afternoon.
If you are travelling in Europe, you will find consistently that many small shops are closed for about 2 hours after lunch time, many shops will reopen only by 3-4PM. The local people are taking religiously the daily nap.
It will be almost a sacrilegious act to interfere with people while they are taking their nap.
It seems that American, British and German people – and many other people with Anglo-Saxon/Protestant ways of life – are frowning on this “napping” custom.
Recently the American Geriatrics Association did a combined medical study with their counterparts in China on this topic of taking a nap after lunch, in the afternoon.
The study is based on the habit of a cohort of 3000 Chinese citizens aged over 65 years old.
The study follows the changes – if any- the cognitive capacity of the people who are taking a nap.
The study found an increase in the cognitive ability of these people in the study, compared with people of the same age who are not taking a nap in the afternoon.
The result is very interesting: The people who are not taking a nap are behaving ( losing their cognitive ability) as if they are 5 years older than the people- taking a nap - included in the study.
As we do know, one of the saddest signs of Alzheimer Disease is the gradual loss of cognitive ability and loss of memory that come gradually with people affected with this cruel disease.
Somehow taking a nap of about 1 hour in the afternoon seems to prevent - or delay - this loss of cognitive aptitude for some 5 years.
5 years could be a night and day miracle for these people and their families who must carry the burden of caring for them.
We have many Geriatrics specialists among us in the Forum, including my dear friend Dr Pham Hieu Liem “le Samurai” , Professor of Geriatrics, who can add their expert comments on this article from the Journal Of The American Geriatrics Society published on line this week.
If you have the habit to take a “sieste” in the afternoon, you don’t have to feel guilty anymore.
You can find the link to this article here:
A lot of us feel the urge to nap during the day, so maybe we should embrace it.
| ||
No comments:
Post a Comment