A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder could be a wake-up call for parents of toddlers: daytime naps for your kids may be more important than you think.
The study shows toddlers between 2 and a half and 3 years old who miss only a single daily nap show more anxiety, less joy and interest and a poorer understanding of how to solve problems, said CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Monique LeBourgeois, who led the study. The results indicate insufficient sleep alters the facial expressions of toddlers — exciting events are responded to less positively and frustrating events are responded to more negatively, she said.
Sleep tanks
“For toddlers, daytime naps are one way of making sure their ‘sleep tanks' are set to full each day,” she said. “This study shows insufficient sleep in the form of missing a nap taxes the way toddlers express different feelings, and, over time, may shape their developing emotional brains and put them at risk for lifelong, mood-related problems.”
The team assessed the emotional expressions of healthy, nap-deprived toddlers one hour after their normal nap time, and tested them again on another day following their normal nap according to a University of Colorado at Boulder press release. The study, believed to be the first to look at the experimental effects of missing sleep on the emotional responses of young children, indicates the loss of a nap — in this case in just 90 minutes — may make toddlers unable to take full advantage of exciting and interesting experiences and to adapt to new frustrations, she said.
The proof
A study using ‘kid-friendly' picture puzzles showed that nap-deprived toddlers completing the solvable puzzles had a 34 per cent decrease in positive emotional responses compared to the same children completing similar puzzles after their usual midday naps. The study also showed a 31 per cent increase in negative emotional responses of nap-deprived toddlers when they attempted to complete unsolvable puzzles when compared with puzzle-solving attempts after they had napped. In addition, the study found a 39 per cent decrease in the expression of ‘confusion' when nap-deprived toddlers attempted to put together unsolvable puzzles. “Confusion is not bad — it's a complex emotion showing a child knows something does not add up,” said LeBourgeois.
Keywords: child health, baby sleep pattern
Comments:
Children needs sleep. So also adults. The Colorado experiments is definitely a pace setter, And the researchers through the world should continue the research in the field to conclusively establish the findings of this study. The attitude of the parents to pressurize The kids in compelling the young to study without rest, for a higher grade, might boomerang and destroy the mental growth of the tots, and further research will be fruitful for the mental growth of children.
Nothing new. This is what our grand mothers and grandpa used to tell in any Indian family. Anyway it is now confirmed by foreigners and now media, press will believe it.