Afternoon sleeps lower heart attack risk
By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MD Sep 10 2019
A new study has shown that people who nap during the day have a lower risk of getting heart attacks. According to the researchers, chronic lack of sleep can raise the risk of getting atherosclerosis or build-up of cholesterol plaques within the arteries of the body. Atherosclerosis is a known risk factor for heart attacks. It leads to narrowing and hardening of the arteries and when this happens in the coronary arteries, heart attack risks are significantly raised, explain the researchers.
The study titled, “Association of napping with incident cardiovascular events in a prospective cohort study,” was published in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal, Heart. The team “aimed to assess the relationship of napping frequency and average nap duration with fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease (CVD) events.”
The researchers noted that persons who slept for a bit in the afternoon seemed to have a fifty percent lower risk of heart attacks compared to those who did not get enough sleep. The experts have recommended eight hours of sleep each night. When that is not possible, the shortage could be met by taking an afternoon nap the team from the University Hospital of Lausanne in Switzerland added. They looked at 3,462 individuals aged between 35 and 75 years and followed them up for a period of 5.3 years. The participants were part of CoLaus – a Swiss population-based cohort between 2009 and 2017. For each of the participants sleep duration, napping frequency, duration of an average nap etc. was recorded in detail. In addition, the risk of stroke or heart attack was also assessed for the participants.
Naps were assessed using the “Physical Activity Frequency Questionnaire”. In this there were 70 different types of activities in the previous week of which napping was one. The researchers wrote, “Napping was assessed by the item ‘Sieste ou repos au lit l’après-midi’ (nap or bed rest in the afternoon).” This meant that only those participants were considered to be nappers if they reported at least one nap over the previous week. They categorized napping frequency as, “non-nappers, 1–2 naps, 3–5 naps and 6–7 naps during the previous week.” Nap duration over the week was divided by seven to obtain the final nap duration and it was either less than an hour or more than an hour per individual. The team also assessed sleep duration using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and day time sleepiness was assessed using the Epworth sleepiness scale. When the Epsworth sleepiness score was over 11, the person was say to have excessive daytime sleepiness. Among the participants, 42.7 percent underwent polysomnography tests to assess severity of sleep apnoea.
More:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20190910/Afternoon-sleeps-lower-heart-attack-risk.aspx
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Very interesting 
As an MS, diabetes and bipolar patient, I've spent about the last twenty-five years living on 4 hours of sleep per night.
Things have improved with medication, but I continue to afternoon nap as often as possible as do folks in many European countries.
Your posting helps clarify this issue, especially the cardiac impacts, which are a huge concern due to the diabetes.
So, thanks! 
but I am always awake all night
does that count? 
