New research shows that babies who nap more often have smaller vocabularies and poorer cognitive abilities, reflecting their individual cognitive needs. Despite parental anxiety, these children should be allowed to nap as needed, and this study emphasizes understanding a child's mental age to assess sleep needs.
A recent study conducted by the University of East Anglia showed that babies who nap frequently tend to have smaller vocabularies and weaker cognitive abilities. This issue is a common concern for parents around the world, who often worry about their children's sleep schedule.
But a new study published today shows that some children are more efficient at consolidating information during sleep, so they take fewer naps. Other children, typically those with fewer words and poorer cognitive abilities, need naps more frequently.
Reducing the number of naps these children take does not improve brain development, the team said, and they should be allowed to nap as often as they need and for as long as they need.
Lead researcher Dr Teodora Gliga said: "There is a lot of anxiety around sleep. Parents worry that their children are not napping as often as expected for their age, or that they are taking too many naps and for too long. But our research shows that the frequency of naps reflects their individual cognitive needs. Some children are more efficient at consolidating information during sleep, so they take fewer naps. Children with smaller vocabularies or lower executive function scores take more naps." She added: "Young children naturally nap when they need to, and they should be allowed to do so."
The team studied 463 babies aged between eight months and three years during the 2020 lockdown. Researchers surveyed parents about their children's sleep patterns, ability to focus on a task, ability to retain information and the number of words understood and spoken.
They also asked about parents' socioeconomic status (including zip code, income and education) and their children's screen time and outdoor play time.
Dr Griga said: "Lockdown has given us an opportunity to study children's intrinsic sleep needs, as children rarely nap on demand when they are in nursery. With nurseries closed, this means there is less disruption to children's natural sleep patterns. None of the children who participated in the survey were attending nursery. We found that daytime sleep structure was an indicator of cognitive development. Infants who took more but shorter naps had smaller vocabularies and poorer cognitive function than infants of the same age. We also found that this negative relationship between vocabulary size and nap frequency was stronger in older children."
"While the majority of parents told us that their children's sleep had not been affected by lockdown, parents from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to report worsening sleep. Screen time increased and outdoor activities decreased during lockdown, but these did not explain the differences in children's sleep. Previous research has shown that caregivers should encourage preschoolers to take frequent naps. Our study The results show that children have different sleep needs - some may give up naps early because they no longer need them. In England, preschools for children aged three to five have no nap provision, and caregivers should base their child's sleep needs on their mental age rather than their chronological age.