How Long Should Kids Nap? Here's Why Napping May Be the Key to Your Child's Success by Joy Stephenson-Laws JD [inactive]

According to the National Sleep Foundation, about half of all children stop napping at age 4 and 70 percent are done with daytime sleep by the age of 5. And if your child falls into this category, you may want to consider implementing nap time again.

A recent study found evidence which suggests that children who nap are happier, perform well academically and have less behavioral problems. The study results showed that the kids greatly benefited from taking naps, particularly with cognitive tasks. There is even evidence which shows that a daytime nap can have the same magnitude of improvement as a full night’s sleep when it comes to discrete cognitive tasks.

"The midday nap is easily implemented, and it costs nothing," said one of the leads on the study. (American schools could achieve this by just ending the school day a bit later). “Not only will this help the kids, but it also takes away time for screen use, which is related to a lot of mixed outcomes."

You may not be able to convince your child’s school to implement nap time again, but share with them what you have learned from reading this. Talk to other parents and see what they think. If you can get enough support and educate other people, you may be able to start a change or encourage a later start to the school day.

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