For those of you reading this with a coffee firmly glued to your hand, I have great news: some of us are born to nap.
New research from the scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) shows some of us need more sleep than others and some of us are just straight up born to nap.
One thing about me… if I can make time for a nap I’m taking one. I love to sleep. I’m a very sleepy person.
— F E L I N E, The Intergalactic Space Kitty (@mamawaterss) December 11, 2021
So you can blame your biology for the 3pm slump.
Dr Hassan Dashti said:
“Napping is somewhat controversial. It was important to try to disentangle the biological pathways that contribute to why we nap.”
Genetic information from 452,633 people was analysed by researchers, while participants were asked how often they napped during the day out of three choices – never/rarely, sometimes or usually.
Some of the group wore an activity monitor or accelerometer to make sure they reported their snoozing accurately.
Imagine someone analysing your data during a big weekend, ‘looks like she was out until 3am and spent the entire next day in bed’.
I don’t need that judgement in my life.
well well well, if it isn’t the problems i tried to escape by taking a nap
— trevor (@trevorevarts) December 11, 2021
The data showed 123 regions in the human genome that were associated with napping, most of which had already been associated with sleepy people.
But looking deeper, the scientists found three potential napping mechanisms.