How long is the appropriate nap time for children?

After a child is born, he or she sleeps for a very long time every day, which can be more than 20 hours. However, as the child grows older, the sleep time will decrease, until the child is one year old and the sleep time can reach about 12 hours a day. Therefore, most parents will arrange a nap for their children. The nap habit can last for a long time. So how long is the appropriate nap time for children? The time for a child's nap is related to his or her age, and also depends on his or her usual sleeping habits.

Naps often continue until children are 3 years old, and then children gradually lose the habit of taking naps. If your child's nap is suddenly cancelled, he or she will feel sleepy in the evening and have difficulty falling asleep at night. If the child is under 3 years old, you should cultivate the habit of taking a nap for the child; if the child is over 3 years old, go to bed earlier. If the nap habit is maintained as the child grows older, the time the child spends in bed at night will become shorter and shorter. Canceling the nap habit can make children go to bed earlier at night and fall asleep as soon as possible after going to bed.

Children often start their naps at the wrong time. If the morning nap time is too short and the child starts taking a nap before 12 noon, his energy will not be restored and he will start to feel sleepy in the evening. One mother described her child as "French fries" because he became very fragile in the evening. By 9 months old, an early nap may result in a 3rd nap, which delays bedtime. If your child starts his nap after 2 p.m., it can easily get confused with an earlier bedtime in the evening.

Sometimes, naps conflict with your child's activities or the activities of his or her older siblings. In this case, either hire a babysitter to help, let the baby take a nap on the way to his or her older sibling's activities, or reduce some of the preschool activities arranged for the baby. If the child's nap is short or he does not take a nap, the bedtime should be advanced.

Sending children to daycare often means that naps are not guaranteed. Maybe the daycare center scheduled the nap at the wrong time, the nap room was too noisy, the caregiver didn't have enough energy to get the baby to sleep, or the children kept crying. In day care, children's morning naps may end quickly because they got enough sleep the night before. Some families may have no choice but to send their children to daycare, so although it may be difficult for these families, they should try to make sure their children go to bed early at night.

Fresh and refreshing air is an important condition for children to fall asleep quickly, so the indoor temperature should not be too high. The room temperature is most comfortable at around 24-25 degrees. To provide the baby with a quiet sleeping environment, parents should move and speak softly, and eliminate all human interference so that the baby can sleep more soundly. It is best for babies to take a nap for 1-3 hours. In fact, the more naps you take, the smarter you will not be. The baby's nap time should not be too long. Sleeping too much during the day can easily affect sleep at night, which is counterproductive! Experts recommend that preschool children's nap time should not exceed 2.5 hours. Generally, children aged 1-3 years old should sleep about 2 hours during the day and 10-11 hours at night, for a total of 13 hours; for children aged 3-6 years old, the nap time is generally 1-1.5 hours, for a total sleep time of 12 hours.

How long is the appropriate nap time for children? This article explains this issue in detail. Medical experts answer this question according to the age of the child. Generally, the afternoon nap time should not exceed two and a half hours. The older the child, the shorter the nap time. Of course, the nap time also depends on the time the child gets up. Children who go to bed early and get up early have a relatively fixed schedule, while those who go to bed late and get up late will change the nap time.