There are many cognitive benefits to napping some of which I’ll be posting about over the next week or two. An interesting study out of the Harvard School of Public Health, however, indicates that an afternoon nap may also be very healthy for your heart.

The study, published in this month’s issue of Archives of Internal Medicine reveals that people who took an afternoon nap of 30 minutes or more at least three times a week had a 37% lower risk of dying from heart disease than those who did not.

Additionally, the study showed that those who took at least an occasional nap at work had a 64% lower risk of death from heart attacks or other heart-related ailments than those who did not nap.

Reference: Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:296-301. Siesta in Healthy Adults and Coronary Mortality in the General Population.

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