[Note: LifeWays offers a video of putting children down for nap in a childcare setting.]
It's always nice when science and academia support what we already know: toddlers need naps! A recent study at the University of Colorado showed that missing just one nap can cause toddlers to be more anxious and frustrated when faced with a challenge. Children in the study were 2-1/2 to 3 years old, and missing just 90 minutes of sleep brought similar results to what adults experience when they pull an all-nighter.
The researchers videotaped the expressions of toddlers given two different kinds of simple puzzles--one had all the correct pieces, but the other was insolvable, with a piece that wouldn't fit. They found that sleep-deprived toddlers were less likely to act confused--an adaptive emotion that signals an understanding that something is not right--and more likely to show no emotion or to become frustrated.
"If you have a problem, let's say you can't find your way and you're lost, the response is confusion, and that's a good thing," Monique LeBourgeois, leader of the study said in the article. "When (toddlers) don't get enough sleep -- in this case from a nap--they don't show that response. What they show instead is a flat response or a neutral response--they're just blank--or they show more anxiety."
This study is being published in the Journal of Sleep Research; to read the full article, see the Boulder Daily Camera from Jan. 4 2012. LeBourgeois is now recruiting 40 toddlers born between March 2009 and October 2011 to study how sleep restriction may affect emotions and cognitive abilities; the study will take place over four years.
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