A LONG nap may increase your risk of high blood pressure – if you’re a woman. Researchers at Peking University in China found that middle-aged women who took naps longer than 90 minutes were 39 per cent more likely to have high blood pressure.
The risk increased with age, reports the journal Heart & Lung, rising to 54 per cent for women aged 50-plus. The deeper sleep we enter when napping for longer (known as rapid eye movement) may increase activity in the sympathetic nervous system, leading to blood vessels narrowing and raising blood pressure.
It’s not clear why the study – of almost 8,000 volunteers – didn’t find the same results in men.
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