How appropriate is it for a child to sleep during the day?Image Credit source: Getty Images
The child comes from school and then sleeps for a long time. This is the routine of most children in India. Very few parents pay attention to what effect this has on their mental-physical health. Out of concern for their children, parents allow them to sleep for 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon. It is also important to know how right or wrong this is. Many researches have revealed that if a child wants to sleep after coming back from school, he should sleep only for half an hour. Doctors or experts call it power nap. It has also been seen that if we take a good nap of just 15 minutes, the body starts feeling fresh.
On the contrary, parents allow their child to sleep for 2 to 3 hours. How bad doing this can prove to be for their health or what things should be kept in mind during this time, let us tell you through experts.
What do experts say
Dr. Avijit Prakash Yadav (Consultant, Department of Newborn and Pediatrics, Kailash Deepak Hospital) says that parents often ask me this question whether it is right for the child to sleep after coming back from school or not? Experts say that school going children should not need long sleep after coming back from school every day. If the child is getting enough sleep at night according to his age, that is, about 9 to 12 hours for children aged 6 to 12 years, then he usually does not need to compensate by sleeping during the day.
When should you sleep in the afternoon?
Doctors say that this can happen in some circumstances. If the child has been very active on any given day, did not get enough sleep last night or is not feeling well, then it is absolutely fine to take a short nap of 30 minutes. This gives him some energy and does not affect his night sleep.
Don’t make this mistake
But I would advise that do not let the child get into the habit of sleeping for one, two or three hours every day. Often parents think that the child is tired, let him sleep. This sounds right, but sleeping for so long during the day can cause problems at night. Then the child sleeps late, wakes up early in the morning for school and this sequence continues every day.
Therefore, if your child is asking for a long sleep every day after coming back from school, then do not ignore it as just tiredness. Also see if he is sleeping very late at night or his night sleep is not good.
When to contact a doctor
If he remains very tired every day even after getting good sleep at night, then definitely talk to your pediatrician once. Sometimes there may be some sleep problem or other health related problem behind this, which needs to be investigated.
