When I taught preschool, naptime was an essential part of our daily rhythm. After lunch, the children would pull out their mats and get their stuffiess and snuggle in for storytime. Throughout the year I told different fairytales: Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Three Bears… The children loved this time of day, and after the story would usually fall asleep or play quietly on their mats before we went out for our afternoon playtime. After a few weeks, I had complaints from one or two parents that they didn’t want their child lying down during the day, since it seemed to make it more difficult to get them to sleep at night. We worked out a solution that we would keep awake the children who’s parents were concerned. Everyone else was allowed to fall asleep for a half hour if they naturally fell asleep.
While it runs contrary to adult behavior, research says children sleep better at night when they are well-rested. It’s actually when they are over-tired that they get can get hyperactive, silly, and have a harder time falling asleep. This makes no sense to adults, but I’ve seen it in action. A good nap=great sleep at night. No nap=overtired cranky child.
(Not too much sleep of course. To get my young child to sleep before 11pm, I had to cut out her second nap of the day.) But one short nap in the middle of the day allows children some valuable rejuvenation time. Under new guidelines for childcare centers, naps were in danger of being cut out. But a research by Rebecca Spencer of U Mass Amherst shows how important if it to a child’s learning and cognitive function that they get that valuable rest time.
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