Association of daytime napping with incident cardiovascular disease in a community-based population

To investigate the association between self-reported daytime napping habits and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a large community-based study population.

Of the 4170 participants, 55.5% were women and the mean age was 63.1 years (SD, 11.0 years). CVD included cardiovascular death, congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, stroke, angina, and revascularization and was defined as the first confirmed incidence of CVD during an average 11-year follow-up. Self-reported daytime napping habits were recorded using baseline questionnaires. Backward stepwise Cox regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between CVD and napping habits.

In this study, 914 participants with CVD (21.9%) were observed. Participants who took regular long naps had a higher prevalence of incident CVD than did those who took regular short naps, irregular naps, or no naps (34.5% vs. 28.4%, 22.4%, 16.6%, respectively; P < 0.001). In the final backward stepwise Cox regression model, regular long naps were found to be associated with CVD (HR: 1.403, 95% CI: 1.079-1.825, P = 0.012).

Regular long daytime napping was an independent risk factor for CVD. Healthy sleep habits may promote human health and prevent CVD.

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00005275.