Team DailyPedia
Finally, here’s some good news for those who love taking siestas.
According to the latest findings presented at the European Society of Cardiology conference in London, a midday nap could lower your blood pressure and prevent a heart attack.
A group of researchers, led by Dr. Manolis Kallistratos, a cardiologist at Asklepieion Voula General Hospital in Athens, studied 386 men and women with an average age of 61, having an arterial hypertension. After adjusting for other factors that could affect the result (i.e. age, gender, smoking status, alcohol, etc.), results showed that those who snoozed during midday had a 4% lower systolic BP reading while they are awake and 6% lower BP reading while they slept at night. This small difference has a significant impact on a person’s risk of having a heart attack.
Dr. Kallistratos stressed, “Although the mean BP decrease seems low, it has to be mentioned that reductions as small as 2 mmHg in systolic blood pressure can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events by up to 10 percent.”
Furthermore, the study also revealed that longer naps of up to an hour are even more beneficial. “Midday sleepers had greater dips in blood pressure while sleeping at night which is associated with better health outcomes,” the doctor said, adding that hypertensive patients who took their siestas were under fewer antihypertensive medications as compared to those who did not sleep during noon.
