Noon Naps Improve Memory in Preschool By: NEURONET inShare Noon Naps Improve Memory in Preschool Sleep is the best meditation - Dalai Lama A recently adopted trend preschools has been to shorten the nap time to add more to the curriculum . Unfortunately , reducing the impact nap time beyond a class full of cranky kids . According to researchers , lack of sleep episodes in early childhood can affect brain maturation and small memory . This study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) , has led to important discoveries. For example , compared with children who remained awake during nap time , preschool children who slept nap at noon were able to recall 10% of the locations of certain images on a memory task . Sleeping proved positively affect a childs ability to learn and retain information. Researchers examined more than 40 preschool children during a visual -spatial task similar to the popular memory game . In each task , children should observe a grid of images under the instruction to remember your disposal. Each child participated in two conditions. In the first condition , children were encouraged to sleep during nap time schedule. The length thereof was 77 minutes. In the second condition , preschoolers nap and slept not , however , stayed awake for the same amount of time. Children s memory was tested after both conditions, and once again the next day to see if a night of sleep also affect performance. The results revealed that when children napped showed much higher performance on the memory test than when they napped . In fact , when they are kept awake , the children forgot significantly more locations of items ( 65 % correct ) than when napped ( 75 % correct ) . The researchers note : While the performance immediately having learned the elements is similar in conditions nap and stay awake , the performance is significantly higher in those who sleep nap that those children who are kept awake , both on the same day so as the next day . These results indicate that there is an additional benefit in sleep just having learned something. The researchers call the preschool centers to develop guidelines to promote and protect nap time young children. The class should not only give children the opportunity to nap , but should be an environment that supports it. Journal reference: Kurdziel , L. , K. Duclos , and R. M. C. Spencer . 2013. Sleep Spindles in Midday Naps Enhance Learning in Preschool Children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Photo credit : Anz -i via Flickr CC
Posted on: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 15:55:37 +0000
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