Nature and Science of Sleep
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REVIEW
Nature and Science of Sleep downloaded from https://www.dovepress.com/ by 69.171.209.37 on 10-Mar-2018 For personal use only.
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Spotlight on daytime napping during early childhood This article was published in the following Dove Press journal: Nature and Science of Sleep
Klára Horváth 1 Kim Plunkett 2 1 2nd Department of Pediatrics, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary; 2Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Introduction
Correspondence: Klára Horváth 2nd Department of Pediatrics, Semmelweis University, Tűzoltó utca 7-9, 1094 Budapest, Hungary Tel +36 1 215 1380 Email
[email protected]
While the function of nighttime sleep has attracted a great deal of public and scientific scrutiny, curiosity about the function of daytime napping has only recently begun to emerge. This curiosity parallels the increasing interest in infant sleep, as daytime napping contributes significantly to infants’ overall sleep time and undergoes rapid change during the first or second year of life. In this review, we summarize our current knowledge about the effects of daytime napping on cognitive functioning in the infant, toddler, and preschooler (children younger than 5 years), focusing on the differences between experimental designs and napping status of children. In a recent review, Faraut et al outlined our current understanding about the functions of daytime napping and suggested that daytime naps can be a countermeasure for the harmful effects of sleep debt.1 Daytime naps have been related to cognitive functions, emotional processing, and self-regulation, as well as health-related factors such as the immune, neuroendocrine, and cardiovascular systems. However, data collected from children are scarce and are mostly concerned with cognition. Going beyond correlational studies investigating the relationship between naps and general cognition, in the past few years, experiments have also been carried out investigating specific cognitive functions, such as memory processes. In a systematic review, Thorpe et al summarized 26 articles about the effects of napping time and quality on development and health in young children. They found the results to be inconsistent most probably because of the different age-groups involved and the different napping statuses of the children studied.2 In their review, the authors combined the findings from both correlational
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Nature and Science of Sleep 2018:10 97–104
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S126252
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Abstract: Daytime napping undergoes a remarkable change in early childhood, and research regarding its relationship to cognitive development has recently accelerated. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of this relationship focusing on children aged
