That Midday Nap May Actually Boost Learning in Preschool Children

We used to think that having our son take a nap during preschool was wasting money. Well, new research shows us that it's actually a good idea. A new report reveals that classroom naps improve learning in young children by enhancing memory.

Counsel and Heal reports:

Researchers found that children who napped performed significantly better on a visual-spatial task in the afternoon after a nap and the next day than those who did not sleep.

The latest findings suggest that naps are very important for memory consolidation and early learning.

We have always suspected that an afternoon nap may actually be a good idea and this is why, even when our son Dylan wasn't in class, we still put him down for a snooze. Hey, it gave us some free time as well.

The study went on to say:

The children were encouraged to nap during their regular classroom nap times. The naps were on average 77 minutes long. In the second conditions, children were kept awake for the same amount of time.

Afterwards, the children played the visual-spatial game.

The findings revealed that children forgot significantly more item locations on the memory test when they had not taken a nap (65 percent accuracy) compared to when they did nap (75 percent accuracy). After napping, children recalled 10 percent more of the test locations than when they had been kept awake.

So go ahead mom and dad, put them down for an afternoon nap. You're doing them, and yourselves, some good.