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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Zahra Mulroy & Kirsty Bosley

Letting children older than two take daytime naps could be bad for them

As adults, the idea of an afternoon nap is an idyllic one.

So we look at children who won't settle for their midday sleep, baffled.

But a new study has revealed that children over the age of two don't need that extra snooze, and that going down for one could be a problem for them when they're older.

The research shows that toddlers over the age of two often suffered from poorer quality of sleep when they got older if they had napped during the day when younger.

The goal of the research was to discover a link between naps and a child's behavioural and physical health, the Mirror reports .

Researchers collected data from 26 studies which looked at napping in children under five-years-old.

The results were interesting.

A link was found which showed napping during the day could cause poorer sleep quality after the age of two.

Scientists revealed that daytime naps could result in long-term behavioural and health issues - including developmental delays and childhood obesity.

Professor Karen Thorpe from Queensland University of Technology told Kidspot: "Parents should not assume that day sleep and night sleep are the same and therefore by giving them a nap, they're getting more sleep, because that doesn't happen.

"Once they no longer biologically need sleep during the day all you're doing by making them nap is subtracting from night sleep because you disrupt it."

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