(EurekAlert!) Dr. Staton said this study examined the relationship between mandatory nap times in childcare and children's night-time sleep duration concurrently and then 12 months later.
"For the first time this study shows a relationship between observed naptime practices in childcare and children's night-time sleep," Dr Staton said.
It found children who were exposed to more than 60 minutes mandatory sleep at childcare slept worse at night which continued when they started school.
"The results showed that children exposed to more than an hour of mandatory naptime in their childcare setting had, on average, 24 minutes less night-time sleep when in childcare," she said.
"We also found that once children had entered school and mandatory napping had ceased, those children still had a 21 minute reduction in total sleep duration."
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