The habit of the pendant in children from the age of kindergarten does not seem to shorten night sleep. Indeed, it enhances it.
A necessary break, to break the long hours of play and recharge, but at the same time feared: after the 3 years of the children, the afternoon nap It is often seen as an obstacle to night sleep, prelude to infinite asleep and a disturbed night. But is it really the case? No, indeed: a nap after lunch Add precious rest to the mountain hours of total sleep recommended for preschool children. A pre-publication study supports it on Research Square.
Useful breaks to remember
Pisolini in children under the age of 3 are considered essential for the consolidation of memories and in particular for linguistic learning (to learn more). Subsequently, and up to 6 years, they seem useful to strengthen other cognitive skills other than language. At one point in this age group, The habit of daytime sleep is lostand the children are only re -deduced in the evening. But since not all children lose the Pisolini at the same time, and since the passage it is usually gradualthat of encouraging them or not to afternoon sleep is a classic dilemma of teachers and parents of children of the nursery school.
The trackers don’t lie
A group of scientists from the University of Lyon, in France, monitored the sleep of 85 children from 2 to 5 years of some French kindergartens for an average time of 7.8 days, with the help of sleep detectors (Sleep Tracker) from wrist and questionnaires compiled by the parents.
It was so discovered that An hour in the afternoon was connected to an average loss of 13.6 minutes of night sleepand for an average delay of 6.4 minutes compared to the usual times of night falling asleep. Anyway, and despite these small losses, in the days when the children made the nap they added about 45 minutes of sleep at the time of time spent to rest within 24 hours a day.
An important addition
For Stéphanie Mazza, among the authors of the study: «Parents should not worry if their child still needs a nap before 6 years. Our data suggests that making a nap It helps to increase overall sleepeven if it means going to bed a little later. Instead of considering the pisolini as a disturbing element, they should be recognized like a precious source of restespecially when children are exposed to stimulating environments ». According to the WHO, 3-4 years of age children should have, for every 24 hours, 10-13 hours of good quality sleep, including any Pisolini.
