The Benefits of Naps on Cognitive, Emotional, and Motor Learning in Preschoolers

The proposed research examines whether naps contribute to immediate and delayed benefits on multiple forms of learning in preschool-aged children (3-5 yrs). By probing recall prior to and following mid-day nap or wake intervals, we will examine immediate memory performance and how it is changed by an interval with a nap compared to if that interval was spent awake. There are three arm, separately assessing declarative (using a storybook learning task), procedural (using a mirror tracing task), and emotional (using an emotional storybook task). All children will participate in a nap and wake condition. On the experimental day, children will learn the task, then be nap or wake promoted (within subject, conditions counterbalanced and separated by 1 week). Subsequently, performance will be reassessed that day as well as the following day. Children will wear an actigraph watch for a 16-day interval surrounding the experimental days in order to access habitual sleep patterns (e.g., nap frequency). A subset of children will complete the experimental days in the sleep laboratory. For these children, sleep will be measured using polysomnography, a montage of electroencepholography, electromyography, and electrooculography electrodes.