Naps Powerful Learning Aid for Pre-Schoolers, Says Study

Naps are good for what ails you -- especially if you are a 3-year-old and what ails you is having trouble learning, suggests a University of Arizona study which was published in the latest issue of Child Development. The study recommends that 3-year-olds need 10 hours of sleep every 24 hours.

Study Specifics

39 children were tested altogether. These were considered "normal" 3-year-olds in health and development. They were split into two groups -- habitual nappers (those who have at least 4 naps a week) and non-nappers (those who have three or fewer naps in a week.) A nap was considered to be 30 minutes long.

The kids were taught new verbs and either had a nap afterwards or did not. They were even taught verbs made of nonsense sounds like "blicking" and "rooping." (You mean they're not real words? Anyway --) the kids were tested on their new vocabulary skills 24 hours later. Habitual nappers (who had a nap averaging 1 hour) did much better than the non-nappers.

The Least You Need to Know

Like it or not, those damn kids of yours need naps. This is not the only study to suggest this. A similar study in 2013 at the University of Massachusetts Amhurst tested 40 kids, where some had naps averaging 77 minutes after a learning period and some kids did not have naps. The nappers had 10% better memory retention than the (presumably) cranky non-nappers.

Unfortunately, neither study does not go into how to get a 3-year-old to take a nap.

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