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A well-napped child is a cheerful and happy child. In a world where both parents have to work, most children spend their first five years attending childcare, right around the time they transition from regular daytime naps to sleeping through the night. A recent study published in Sleep Medicine investigated whether attending childcare changes the number of times a child naps on that day compared with days spent at home, and how that relationship shifts as children grow older.

Many licensed childcare centers follow a one-size-fits-all approach to naps, requiring every toddler and preschooler to take a midday nap, regardless of whether their bodies still need one. This can create a mismatch between children's biological sleep needs and how often they are expected to nap.

To see how far the effects of this practice go, researchers tracked 187 Australian families (188 children) as part of the broader Sleep Transitions and Regularities Study (STARs), following children from 12 months to 54 months of age (1 to 4.5 years).

Children under 2 were less likely to nap on days they attended childcare than on days they stayed home. However, this difference disappeared as they grew older, with nap frequency remaining similar on childcare and non-childcare days through the middle age range studied. Irrespective of childcare status, with every passing year, children showed roughly a 35% decline in daily napping frequency, indicating the natural shift toward giving up naps.

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