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    Missed Naps Could Put Toddlers at Risk for Mood Disorders

    HealthDay – Thu, Jan 5, 2012

    THURSDAY, Jan. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Toddlers who miss daytime naps may be at increased risk for mood disorders later in life, a new study indicates.

    Researchers looked at toddlers aged 30 months to 36 months and found that depriving them of a single daily nap resulted in more anxiety, lower levels of joy and interest, and reduced problem-solving abilities.

    "Many young children today are not getting enough sleep, and for toddlers, daytime naps are one way of making sure their 'sleep tanks' are set to full each day," study leader Monique LeBourgeois, an assistant professor in the integrative physiology department at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a university news release.

    "This study shows insufficient sleep in the form of missing a nap taxes the way toddlers express different feelings, and, over time, may shape their developing emotional brains and put them at risk for lifelong, mood-related problems," she explained.

    The researchers videotaped the emotional expressions of toddlers while they worked on solvable and unsolvable picture puzzles on two different days. One day, the test was conducted an hour after the toddlers had their normal 90-minute daytime nap. On another day, the toddlers were deprived of their naps and tested an hour after their normal nap time.

    When they were nap-deprived, the toddlers had a 34 percent decrease in positive emotional responses after completing the solvable puzzles, a 31 percent increase in negative emotional responses when they were unable to complete the unsolvable puzzles, and a 39 percent decrease in the expression of confusion when they tried to complete the unsolvable puzzles.

    "Confusion is not bad -- it's a complex emotion showing a child knows something does not add up," LeBourgeois noted. "When well-slept toddlers experience confusion, they are more likely to elicit help from others, which is a positive, adaptive response indicating they are cognitively engaged with their world."

    Overall, according to the release, the study shows that missing a daytime nap may make it more difficult for toddlers to take full advantage of exciting and interesting experiences and to adapt to new frustrations.

    "Just like good nutrition, adequate sleep is a basic need that gives children the best chance of getting what is most important from the people and things they experience each day," LeBourgeois said.

    The study appears online and in an upcoming print issue of the Journal of Sleep Research.

    More information

    The Nemours Foundation has more about why naps are important for children.

     

    7 comments

    • Katrina M
      Katrina M  •  Gulf Shores, Alabama  •  4 mths ago
      You don't have to tell me, just one missed nap for my little one and he is a grumpy bear the rest of the day and it seems like he has to catch up the next day!
      • stardog
        stardog 4 mths ago
        A grumpy bear,lady please,we're adults here.
      • Katrina M
        Katrina M 4 mths ago
        Stardog please! Your cracking me up.
    • Educatin' , Not Hatin ...
      Educatin' , Not Hatin ...  •  4 mths ago
      I think this article got it a little wrong. A toddlers missed nap is a risk for MY mood disorder. I cannot count the times I have seen little kids with mommy and daddy at Wal-Mart at 2:00 in the morning. No, they did NOT run in for cough medicine, etc. They have a cart FULL and won't separate their WIC purchases. Since I am stuck in line behind these idiots, I can comment all I want to, so save it. Who does their weekly shopping at 2:00 A.M. WITH THE DADDY AND KIDS COMING ALONG? Daddy could stay home with the now over-cranky kid.
      • Alicia Holloway
        Alicia Holloway 4 mths ago
        That's ridiculous. I avoid taking my kids out at insane hours if at all possible. My husband has been known to walk home when he gets back from the field if the kids are already asleep so I won't have to get them out of bed to come get him.
    • Jen
      Jen  •  Madison, Wisconsin  •  4 mths ago
      They really had to do a study to show that missing naps makes toddlers cranky?! Do they plan on doing a study to make sure gravity still works? Maybe they also need to verify that the sky is blue or the Earth is still a sphere?
    • Blood_Thirst
      Blood_Thirst  •  Concord, California  •  4 mths ago
      Interesting study, are they talking about toddlers that would normally nap but wasn't given the opportunity or toddlers (like one of mine who was later diagnoses with ADHD) that rarely napped after 18 mos? And when she did the chances I could get her down before 1 or 2 am was slight. I remember daycare asking me how I got her to nap and I told them I was hoping they would teach me. My other child never gave me that issue until closer to 3 yrs, then she stopped napping and would only sleep til 530 am. They don't have mood disorders outside of ADHD. So I guess another questions would be: does the lack of nap cause the mood disorder or does the mood disorder cause the lack of naps?
    • michael
      michael  •  4 mths ago
      LMAO! Some nut job of a researcher thinks missing a nap if fing up the american kids?
      How about feeding them chemical laced food the FDA says is ok for human consumption or all the treated and pop full of sugar or all the fat laden food fast food resturants sell.
      America is and will be for some time to come full to the top with fat and lazy.
      Bunch of porkers! lol
    • EVIL THE CAT
      EVIL THE CAT  •  Norton, Virginia  •  4 mths ago
      I can tell you this I remember well from my early years even before I knew any language or letter or numbers or symbols. I can tell you exactly where I was what we were doing and who was there to the very day or night. I can tell you whee the furniture was placed what kind of furniture and what we ate and where we ate it. I knew what we were doing and I understood the people by their tone of voice facial expressions touch and body movements. I could see their insides and feel their insides. And I knew when something was not good or shameful or a person was unknowable even if I never saw them before or again but just in a store. I blew my aunt and family away when I told them what we were doing and all about it yet I was only a little over 2 years old. But every thing was silence in my understanding there was and is no words recalled not even what the music or TV let out I have no recall of any complied form written or numerical or spoken of communication it is as though it was not at all. Because I did not know what any of that was I did not understand any of it at all. I understood emotions and reactions and silence was incredible it was like another world it was absolutely the most void of time I have ever sensed. Silence with nothing moving just looking out my eyes at it with all still and quiet was like heaven another sphere another world it was divine utterly peaceful and absolutely no sense of time in it no sense of who long it lasted or when it began or stopped just that it was I even know where I was and the view I was looking at outside the window I just did not know who was holding me up that high to see until I asked my family who was holding me there and then and they said my aunt was holding me up that me and her were there by ourselves and I knew that she had something in her that I will never forget Peace absolute good thoughts and feeling that were only of Peace.
    • Alicia Holloway
      Alicia Holloway  •  4 mths ago
      Naptime is necessary for the parents as well. Or it is for me. If my didn't take naps, I'd go nuts from never having any quiet time to myself. I love them and I love playing with them, but I still need some "me" time. And, if they didn't nap, they'd be huge pains in the butt.
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