Two families live next door to each other. Both have three-year-olds. One child naps every afternoon for two hours. The other stopped napping six months ago. Both families insist their approach works. Both children seem fine.
So which family chose correctly?
Scientists at the University of Western Ontario studied this exact puzzle across 900 families with young children. What they found will change how you think about naptime decisions.
The answer has less to do with which child needs more sleep. The answer connects directly to what each set of parents believes.
How Researchers Measured Beliefs About Naps
Dr. Adam Newton and Dr. Graham Reid created two questionnaires that measure invisible things – the thoughts parents carry about daytime sleep. The first questionnaire asks about general opinions. Do you think naps help children at this age? Do you think naps cause problems? Parents rate their agreement with different statements. The second questionnaire digs into personal choices. What would make you encourage your own child to nap today? What would make you skip it? Parents explain their actual decision-making process. The research team tested both questionnaires twice. First with 201 Canadian families. Then again with 702 different Canadian families. Both times, the same patterns showed up.
Parent beliefs predicted everything. How often the child napped. How long those naps lasted. Whether naps followed a schedule or happened randomly. When the child stopped napping completely.
The Two Camps Parents Fall Into
Some parents see naps as beneficial. They notice their child acts happier after sleeping. They believe rest time supports healthy development. They feel afternoon sleep belongs in a preschooler’s day.
Children in these families napped almost every day. The naps lasted longer – often 90 minutes or more. Parents planned naps into the schedule rather than waiting for the child to crash.
Other parents worry about naps. They fear late bedtimes. They believe their child has outgrown the need for daytime rest. They see naps as old habits rather than current needs.
Children in these families barely napped at all. Maybe once a week when exhaustion took over. Those rare naps were short and unplanned – the child fell asleep in the car, not in their bed at naptime.
Both groups based their approach on beliefs, not just on direct observation of their child’s behavior.
The Five Factors That Drive Real Decisions
The researchers found five specific reasons that push parents toward keeping naps or dropping them.
Child behavior changes: Your child melts down by dinnertime without a nap. You see the direct cause and effect. Sleep improves everything that follows.
Parent survival: You require that quiet time to stay sane. You need to recharge. You use those hours to handle tasks that cannot happen with a toddler underfoot. The research found this reason came up often and connected with daily napping.
Child resistance: Your child refuses to stay in bed. The power struggle exhausts everyone. You spend 45 minutes trying to get 20 minutes of sleep. The effort costs more than it returns.
Child energy remains steady: Your child stays pleasant all day without a nap. You see no signs of overtiredness. Skipping the nap changes nothing about mood or behavior.
Schedule conflicts: Soccer practice happens at naptime. You need to pick up the older sibling from school. Naps wreck the evening routine. The pieces do not fit together anymore.
Parents who prioritized the first two reasons had children who napped regularly. Parents who prioritized the last three reasons had children who stopped napping early.
Testing the Biggest Fear About Naps
Most parents hesitate to keep naps going because they fear one thing: “Naps destroy bedtime.” The research team looked at this concern directly. They measured both nap beliefs and nighttime sleep problems. Then they compared the two. Weak connections showed up. Yes, some small relationships existed. But the links stayed surprisingly weak – much weaker than most parents would guess.
Parents who strongly believe naps ruin bedtime do not always struggle with bedtime. Parents who love naps do not always enjoy smooth nights.
The two issues operate more independently than common wisdom suggests. Dropping naps might not fix your bedtime battles. Keeping naps might not create bedtime battles.
When Biology Hands Control to Environment
Before your child turns two, genetics control most of their sleep patterns. The body dictates the schedule. After age two, the environment takes over. What parents do matters more than DNA. The choices you make shape the outcome more than biology does. This shift happens right when children show the widest variation in nap needs. Walk into any preschool classroom. Some four-year-olds still need daily naps to function. Other four-year-olds gave up naps a year earlier and thrive.
Your beliefs about what your child needs influence which signals you notice and how you interpret them.
What Medical Schools Do Not Teach About Sleep
Researchers surveyed pediatric training programs in ten countries – 152 programs total. The average program dedicated 4.4 hours to teaching about child sleep. Not 4.4 hours per week. Not 4.4 hours per month. Total. For the entire training. One out of every four programs taught nothing about pediatric sleep. Zero hours.
This creates a gap in healthcare. Sleep consultant training programs fill this specific gap.
Specialized Training
The International Institute of Infant Sleep built a sleep consultant training program for this missing piece. The curriculum walks through every developmental stage. Newborn sleep biology. Infant schedule development. Toddler sleep resistance. Preschool nighttime fears.
The program requires application. Students work through real case studies. They review actual sleep diaries from families. They write plans that parents could follow right away. Mentors read every assignment and provide detailed feedback on what works and what needs adjustment. Sleep consultant training programs show you how to translate academic findings into practical advice that changes lives.
The training teaches you to distinguish biology from belief. You learn when parent assumptions block the obvious solution. You learn to build plans that match real family life rather than textbook ideals.
Students receive downloadable tools from day one. Sleep tracking forms. Parent intake questionnaires. Educational handouts. Wake-window reference charts. The program teaches multiple coaching methods because every family needs something slightly different.
What Students Report
“It’s a life changing experience on both personal and professional levels.”
“The team has been incredibly supportive and helpful, even before I registered.”
“The training program is designed to cover in detail all aspects that can affect children’s sleep. This course is a great investment in knowledge.”
“I liked this course even though English is not my native language. All information is presented clearly and structured. I used some tips and recommendations to my patients even during my studies.”
“All the information is presented clearly and accessibly, with numerous additional resources they also provide.”
“I found the practical exercises very helpful. Also, access to knowledgeable and experienced mentors who provided guidance, feedback, and support was important for my professional development.”
Reviews about the International Institute of Infant Sleep and their sleep consultant training program repeat these themes consistently. Students describe content that makes sense and follows a sensible order. Case studies mirror real situations they meet. Mentor feedback arrives quickly and addresses specific issues. Support staff stays responsive throughout. The ready-to-use tools work in actual practice. The flexible online format fits around busy schedules. Students whose first language is not English report clear, understandable content.
Trained sleep consultants do not distribute cookie-cutter schedules. You help each family understand their unique situation, recognize their assumptions, and build realistic solutions.
Action Steps for Parents Dealing with Nap Questions
Collect data before making changes: Keep a sleep log for at least a week. When does your child nap? How long? What happens to mood and behavior on nap days versus non-nap days? Look at the pattern you document, not the pattern you remember.
Examine your assumptions: Ask yourself hard questions. Am I pushing to drop naps because my child shows clear signs of readiness? Or because I believe three-year-olds should not need naps anymore? The answers are different and lead to different choices.
Run experiments carefully: Your child might be done with naps. Test it for four or five days. Observe what actually happens. Does mood stay stable? Does behavior remain consistent? Does nighttime sleep improve, worsen, or stay the same?
Include your needs in the equation: The research validated what many parents hesitate to admit – your needs matter too. If you need that midday break to be a functional parent for the rest of the day, count that as a legitimate factor in your decision.
Accept that children vary: Some five-year-olds genuinely still need naps. Some three-year-olds genuinely do not. Both are completely normal. Do not force your child into someone else’s timeline.
References
International Institute of Infant Sleep. (2025). When should children stop napping? What Western Ontario scientists found about parent beliefs.
Mindell, J. A., Bartle, A., Ahn, Y., Ramamurthy, M. B., Huong, H. T. D., Kohyama, J., Li, A. M., Ruangdaraganon, N., Sekartini, R., Teng, A., & Goh, D. Y. T. (2013). Sleep education in pediatric residency programs: A cross-cultural look. Sleep Medicine, 14(10), 1021-1025. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-6-130
Newton, A. T., & Reid, G. J. (2024). Parents, preschoolers, and napping: The development and psychometric properties of two Nap Belief Scales in two independent samples. Frontiers in Sleep, 3. doi:10.3389/frsle.2024.1351660
