PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nadine Häusler
AU  - Jose Haba-Rubio
AU  - Raphael Heinzer
AU  - Pedro Marques-Vidal
TI  - Association of napping with incident cardiovascular events in a prospective cohort study
AID  - 10.1136/heartjnl-2019-314999
DP  - 2019 Aug 16
TA  - Heart
PG  - heartjnl-2019-314999
4099  - http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2019/08/16/heartjnl-2019-314999.short
4100  - http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2019/08/16/heartjnl-2019-314999.full
AB  - Objective There is controversy regarding the effect of napping on cardiovascular disease (CVD), with most studies failing to consider napping frequency. We aimed to assess the relationship of napping frequency and average nap duration with fatal and non-fatal CVD events.Methods 3462 subjects of a Swiss population based cohort with no previous history of CVD reported their nap frequency and daily nap duration over a week, and were followed over 5.3 years. Fatal and non-fatal CVD events were adjudicated. Cox regressions were performed to obtain HRs adjusted for major cardiovascular risk factors and excessive daytime sleepiness or obstructive sleep apnoea.Results 155 fatal and non-fatal events occurred. We observed a significantly lower risk for subjects napping 1–2 times weekly for developing a CVD event (HR 0.52, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.95) compared with non-napping subjects, in unadjusted as well as adjusted models. The increased HR (1.67, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.55) for subjects napping 6–7 times weekly disappeared in adjusted models (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.58 to 1.38). Neither obstructive sleep apnoea nor excessive daytime sleepiness modified this lower risk. No association was found between nap duration and CVD events.Conclusion Subjects who nap once or twice per week have a lower risk of incident CVD events, while no association was found for more frequent napping or napping duration. Nap frequency may help explain the discrepant findings regarding the association between napping and CVD events.