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Frequent Napping Is Associated With Excessive Daytime Sleepiness, Depression, Pain, and Nocturia in Older Adults: Findings From the National Sleep Foundation ‘2003 Sleep in America’ Poll

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Objective

The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence and correlates of regular napping among older adults.

Methods

The National Sleep Foundation's “2003 Sleep in America Poll,” a 20-minute telephone interview that focused on the topic of “sleep and aging” (N = 1,506 adults 55–84 years of age).

Results

Overall, 15% of respondents reported regular napping, ranging in prevalence from 10% among those 55–64 years of age to 25% among those 75–84 years of age. In addition to older age and a strong association with excessive daytime sleepiness, other factors that independently increased prevalence included a diagnosis of depression, bodily pain, and nocturia.

Conclusions

Regular napping is common among older adults. Longitudinal studies of napping behavior and health status are needed to establish risk factors other than excessive daytime sleepiness.

Section snippets

METHODS

Subjects were polled from a geographically representative random sample of telephone listings for U.S. households and were eligible if they were between 55 and 84 years of age. Approximately 26% of solicited subjects (N = 1,506) participated in a brief telephone interview that lasted approximately 20 minutes and included questions about their sleep behaviors, medical and psychiatric conditions, sleep problems, and sociodemographic and lifestyle attributes. A total of 1,497 had complete data on

RESULTS

Overall, 15% of respondents reported regular napping, ranging in prevalence from 10% among those 55–64 years of age to 25% among those 75–84 years of age. The prevalence of regular napping did not differ significantly between men and women (see Table 1) and was not associated with marital status, exercise, or coffee consumption. In contrast, other bivariate analyses shown in Table 1 indicate that regular nappers differed significantly from nonregular nappers in that they had fewer hours of

DISCUSSION

In this nationally representative poll of older adults, men and women were equally likely to be regular nappers, a behavior that was significantly more prevalent among the older respondents. Regardless of their age, approximately one-half of the regular nappers had planned to nap versus reporting that they just fell asleep because of being sleepy. One-fourth reported nearly always having daytime sleepiness so severe that it interfered with their daily activities. In addition to older age and a

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    The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Pat Britz and other National Sleep Foundation staff who made this study possible.

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