It is good for everyone to take a nap in the middle of the day, although not everyone does it. Make napping has many health benefits. But if a nap is beneficial for the elderly, it is even more so for young children. Children's activity requires a rest, a nap that helps them face the challenges of the rest of the day.
Children are recommended to nap up to age 5. Although once they start school, this routine usually disappears due to lack of time. However, it is important that children acquire the habit of napping every day. On many occasions it is the parents who are eliminating this habit, especially when the children do not sleep well at night.
Many children do not even like to sleep, there are parents who try to make their children nap but it is impossible. These children are so awake and have so much to discover that rest is something that they automatically eliminate from the routine. But rest throughout the day is as important as the nightHere are the benefits of napping.
Benefits of napping for children
- Rest improves memory. A study carried out in the United States determines that children can better remember everything they have learned throughout the day if they sleep after eating.
- Helps reduce hyperactivity. A nap after eating helps reduce anxiety and hyperactivity in children. Through studies on sleep, it has been found that children who do not rest after eating are more likely to suffer from anxiety.
- Better performance. Rest at nap time helps children to rrecover lost energy throughout the day. The siesta helps the children to have full performance, their capacities for the afternoon activities.
- A break for the brain. The brain is working all day, take a nap after eating, favors creativity and the imagination is stimulated.
- Avoid school problems. Studies have been carried out on the sleep of children, in them it has been observed that the little ones who lose hours of sleep throughout childhood have a greater possibility of suffering delay in the development of language and worse school performance.
- Help calm the child. As the hours go by, children become more irritable and more restless. A nap after eating helps children wake up calmer. Rest also favors a good mood and the child will be more receptive to games.
- Encourages concentration. Children are constantly receiving information, everything that happens around them is learning for them. Rest in the middle of the day helps them receive all that information with their senses alert. That stop favors your attention and their concentration, so that children can better assimilate all the concepts, essential for their learning.
- Sleep helps growth: Sleep hours are essential for the proper functioning of body functions. The Cardiac rhtyms set the clock of our body, which during sleep releases growth hormone.
Encourage napping but don't impose it out of obligation
Although we have already seen that napping is very beneficial, it is not good to force children to do it every day. Try create a nap routine at the same time after meals. Never after 4 in the afternoon, as it could throw off your night's rest. A good nap should last at least 20 minutes, but not exceed 2 hours. The best time to take a nap is after eating, around 2 in the afternoon. Prepare an environment conducive to sleep, lower the clarity but that the room is not completely dark.