Sleep is a crucial element in the good development of a child. Very early on, the infant got into the habit of taking naps, at the time of the development of early memory. Although children generally stop taking a nap between 3 and 5 years old, some have the need for a long time. Some parents, however, have doubts about the need to maintain these moments of rest. What if the child – Ultimate Cauchemar – didn’t want to sleep in the evening anymore? In reality, short naps would have the opposite effect, promoting better sleep, according to New Scientist magazine.
In France, children enter nursery school at the age of 3 and the nap dilemma is commonplace for teaching staff. “Even if the benefits of napping on cognitive development are well known, some parents and teachers fear that they do not prevent children from falling asleep in the evening or that they do not reduce learning time”explains Stéphanie Mazza, researcher in neuroscience at the University of Lyon 1.
To be clear, Stéphanie Mazza and her colleagues analyzed the behavior of 85 children aged 2 to 5, distributed in six different nursery schools in France. For a week, five researchers collected data using bracelets measuring sleep and a follow -up form to be completed by the parents. Their study has just been pre -published on the Research Square platform.
Precious moments of rest
The result has shown that an hour of additional nap during the day of a child led an average of 13.6 minutes of less night sleep, delaying the bed time by only 6.4 minutes. When they nap, children sleep on 45 more minutes on a day.
“The naps lead to a significant increase in total sleep time over twenty-four hours”summarizes Stéphanie Mazza. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a sleep cycle between ten and thirteen hours a day for children from 2 to 5 years old. The researcher also declares that “Parents should not worry if their child still needs to take naps until the age of 6”.
“Our data suggest that naps help increase total sleep, even if it delays bedtime a bitdetails Stéphanie Mazza. Rather than considering them as embarrassment, naps should be seen as a valuable source of rest, especially when children evolve in very stimulating environments. ” Rebecca Spencer, professor in cognitive sciences at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, adds in conclusion: “For me, that means: if they can take a nap, let them take the nap.”