Five Essential Reasons to Keep Naptime in the - Southern Early ...

sleep had more negative than
positive adjustments in preschool
(Bates, Viken, Alexander,
Beyers, & Stockton, 2002;
Lavigne et al., 1999).
• The emotional effects of
sleep deprivation in young
children are similar to jet lag,
including “nagging fatigue
and cognitive disorientation”
(Bates et al., p. 70). The result
is that young children may
experience meltdown during
the day and have difficulty
interacting with other children
and adults.
Set Program Policies
Informed by Knowledge
Parents of 4-year-olds complained
to the director of their
child care program that several
children in one classroom
seemed to be acting aggressively
and hurting other children.
Mrs. Ramos, the teacher,
agreed that these behaviors
seemed to be escalating. Children
seemed to be cranky and
out of sorts, and had short tempers
during free play. She was
aware of studies suggesting a
relationship between sleep deprivation
in children and behavior
problems (Bates et al., 2002).
A few weeks earlier, the director
had eliminated naptime in the
4-year-old program, saying the
children needed more time to
practice getting ready for kindergarten.
When information about
the effect of lack of sleep on children’s
behaviors was shared with
everyone, a new plan was
reached: to reinstate naptime.
Families also agreed to monitor
the amount of nighttime sleep
their children were getting.
After a month of increasing
children’s sleep time, their
aggressive behavior diminished
significantly.
• Mood dysfunction is associated
with daytime sleepiness (Smaldone,
Honig, Byrne, 2007).
• Sleep loss is a form of stress,
which leads to the inability
to regulate emotions and
also may impact a child’s
ability to pay attention
(Weissbluth, 1989).
Reason #3: Sleep Is Essential
for Cognitive Functioning
Sleep is vital to the developing
brain for cognitive processing and
procedural and emotional learning.
For a variety of reasons, many young
children are not getting the sleep they
need for proper brain development.
Medical problems; the erratic work,
play, and bedtime patterns of families;
inconsistent parenting; overscheduling
of children; as well as
childhood sleep disorders all may
affect children’s sleep (Owens, Spirito,
McGuinn, Nobile, 2000). These
are some of the implications of lack
of sleep for young children’s learning.
• Sleep plays an important role
in learning and memory consolidation
(Fischer, Drosopoulos,
Tsen, & Born, 2006;
Gais, Plihal, Wagner, &
Born, 2000; Maquet, 2001;
Smith, 2005; Stickhold,
Hobson, Fosse, & Fosse,
2001). Consolidation is “the
processing of memory traces
during which the traces may
be reactivated, analyzed, and
gradually incorporated into
long-term memory” (Maquet,
2001, p. 1048).
• The effects of sleep deprivation
are most profound in
the area of cognitive functioning.
In a review of 56
sleep-deprivation studies, the
evidence was clear that sleep
deprivation leads to impaired
cognitive performance (Pilcher
& Huffcutt, 1996).
• Higher-order cognitive processes
such as the ability to
learn abstract concepts can
be impaired in young children
if they are not getting
the required amount of sleep
(Fallone, Acebo, Seifer, &
Carskadon, 2005; Randazzo,
Muehlbach, Schweitzer, &
Walsh, 1998).
• Even modest extensions of
sleep time can benefit cognitive
functioning (Sadeh,
Gruber, & Raviv, 2003).
Observe Changes in
Children’s Cognitive Skills
Mr. John, a kindergarten teacher,
was baffled by the increasing lack
of imagination and engagement in
learning explorations by one of his
brightest students, Cindy. She was
also falling asleep in the room at
odd times during the day.
In speaking with her parents,
John learned that Cindy had difficulty
sleeping at night because of
obstructive sleep apnea. She
couldn’t breathe very well when
lying down. John was aware of the
many studies demonstrating that
sleep deprivation in young children
due to physical problems can be
associated with learning difficulties
(Taras & Potts-Datema, 2005). He
thought this might account for
Cindy’s fatigue and lack of ability
to focus and concentrate in the
classroom.
After Cindy had corrective
surgery at the end of the school
year, her school performance
improved significantly in first grade.
John vowed to monitor the sleep
patterns of children in addition to
other factors whenever low cognitive
functioning was observed in his
classroom.
6 Volume 36, Number 3 DIMENSIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD Fall 2008