The evidence on children and napping

nap childFor most stay-at-home moms, naptime is a much-welcomed break during a hectic day.  Personally, having 2 hours to myself every afternoon allows me to catch up on messages, start preparing dinner, do some cleaning, and generally enjoy quiet that is elusive when my young children are awake.

But there’s new evidence that offers some bad news for moms who cherish their quiet afternoons. A systematic review published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood found for children ages 2 and older, napping interferes with nighttime sleep.

The review included 26 separate observational studies of children ages 0 to 5.  The only consistent finding among the studies was that napping leads to nighttime sleeping problems in children older than 2, including difficulty falling asleep, earlier waking and poorer quality of sleep.

The reviewers note that the evidence is not entirely high in quality, as they include observational studies, instead of randomized, controlled trials. And in many cases, parents are reporting napping behavior instead of researchers observing it directly.  Still, they concluded there is enough evidence that napping patterns of preschoolers should be considered, especially when children have difficulty sleeping at night.

On a personal note, my middle daughter struggled to fall asleep at night when she was 2. She would sit in her bed for hours wide awake, flipping through picture books. But I wasn’t ready to give up my afternoon quiet time.

Instead, I moved a few of her favorite toys into her bedroom and instituted a “quiet time.” Now she stays in her bedroom for at least an hour every afternoon playing and listening to CDs. She’s come to look forward to her “quiet time” just as much as I do. And now she falls asleep at night within 15 minutes of lying down in bed.

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