Toddlers stop napping 'when their brain has developed, rather than at a specific age'

Toddlers driblet naps erstwhile their brains are ready, alternatively than astatine a definite age, a survey had found, arsenic experts urged parents to fto their children sleep.

Napping is known to beryllium captious for encephalon improvement and representation processing, but scientists are inactive unclear astir erstwhile and wherefore toddlers halt taking naps.

Professor Rebecca Spencer, from the University of Massachusetts, is starring an probe into wherefore immoderate 4 oregon five-year-olds favour a regular nap, portion immoderate three-year-olds person stopped.

The findings showed a "relation betwixt nap transitions and underlying representation and encephalon development", and were published successful the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Prof Spencer and co-author Tracy Riggins from the University of Maryland.

Prof Spencer added: "When small kids are napping, they consolidate affectional and declarative memories, truthful past you inquire yourself, erstwhile this is specified an important clip of learning, wherefore would they modulation retired of napping if napping is helping learning? Why not conscionable support napping?"

The survey has been centred connected the brain's hippocampus, which plays a large relation successful developmental learning and representation processes.

Their erstwhile enactment has shown a quality successful the improvement of the hippocampus for children who nap and those who person stopped.

When young children person an immature hippocampus, it reaches a bounds of memories that tin beryllium stored without them being forgotten, triggering the request for sleep, the authors say.

Napping allows these memories to past beryllium processed into the brain's cortex, freeing up abstraction successful the hippocampus for much to beryllium stored erstwhile they aftermath up.

"When the hippocampus is inefficient, it's similar having a tiny bucket - your bucket is going to capable up faster and overflow, and immoderate memories volition spill retired and beryllium forgotten", Prof Spencer said.

"That's what we deliberation happens with the kids that are inactive napping. Their hippocampus is little mature, and they request to bare that bucket much frequently."

When the hippocampus is much developed, children tin determination distant from taking naps due to the fact that their hippocampus has matured to a constituent that their "bucket" volition not overflow.

The proposition is that they are capable to clasp connected to memories until the extremity of the day, erstwhile overnight slumber tin bash its enactment successful moving memories to the brain's cortex.

Prof Spencer said increasing grounds suggests it is important that each young children are fixed the accidental to nap.

But she said further studies are present needed to travel children implicit time.

Forcing children to halt taking naps "could pb to suboptimal learning and memory", she added.