New research suggests regular naps are good for your heart.

A six-year study of nearly 24,000 Greek adults found that those who consistently took midday naps had a lower risk of dying from heart disease.

"Having a siesta reduces your probability of dying by about one third third," Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, one of the study's senior authors, told CTV News British Columbia.

Researchers found that those who slept at least three times a week, for a minimum of 30 minutes, had a 37 per cent lower risk of dying from heart disease.

Employed men showed stronger benefits from napping than unemployed men, said researchers at the University of Athens Medical School.

"We interpret our findings as indicating that among healthy adults, siesta, possibly on account of stress-releasing consequences, may reduce coronary mortality," lead author Androniki Naska wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study also showed that occasional nappers were less likely to die from heart problems than those who did not take naps, but researchers said the benefit was not significant.

Of the 792 men and women that died during the follow-up period, 133 died from heart disease. About half of the total subjects took naps.

None of the subjects, who ranged in age from 20 to 86, suffered from illness at the beginning of the study.

"Take a Nap! Change your life."

According to a Cornell University study, sleep-deprived workers cost U.S. industry $150 billion a year in reduced job productivity and fatigue-related accidents.

Harvard-trained research scientist Sara Mednick, author of the book "Take a Nap! Change your life." told CTV News recently that sleep deprivation can lead to a whole host of health problems such as increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, decreased libido and obesity.

"What I found with napping research is actually that naps can actually help solve a lot of these problems," she told CTV's Canada AM.

Employers should sit up and take notice, says Mednick, who is an inveterate napper herself.

She says North American employees have become slaves to their BlackBerries, cellphones, and email, often forgoing a short nap in favour of a quick caffeine buzz.

"If you look at the rise of Starbucks across the 90s there was an amazing shift where suddenly they just exponentially increased their amount of stores," Mednick told CTV.ca.

"Not only are they pushing a market but there is also a market asking for it ... so I think what people are hoping is that they are going to supplement their sleep deprivation with caffeine."

She says napping could eventually become the new coffee break, she says.

"It's a slow change for sure. In the same way (with) telecommuting, people in the '80s and 90s asked to start working at home and it seemed like a revolutionary idea, but slowly but surely these things started to catch on."