Summary: Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have launched two large-scale longitudinal studies to investigate how napping supports brain development and memory in infants and preschoolers. By tracking changes in the hippocampus—the brain region crucial for short-term memory—these studies aim to clarify when and why young children need naps and how naps influence memory consolidation and neural maturation.
These longitudinal investigations are designed to provide strong scientific evidence to guide nap policies in early childhood settings and to offer practical recommendations for parents and educators of both neurotypical and neurodiverse children. The findings should inform classroom schedules, childcare practices, and family routines by revealing the biological mechanisms that link sleep and cognitive development.
Key Facts:
- Focus on the Hippocampus: The studies center on how the hippocampus supports memory during nap transitions and how its maturation determines a child’s need for daytime sleep.
- Longitudinal Design: Unlike one-time cross-sectional research, these projects follow the same children over months to observe developmental changes that predict when naps are no longer essential.
- Practical Impact: Results are expected to influence preschool nap policies and provide evidence-based guidance for parents and teachers about the role of naps in learning and memory.
Source: UMass
Overview of the research
Rebecca Spencer, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at UMass Amherst and a leading sleep scientist, received $6.7 million in NIH funding to lead two coordinated studies on nap transitions in early childhood. Her team will follow infants and preschoolers to identify the bioregulatory processes that make naps essential at certain stages of brain development.
Spencer’s prior work, together with collaborators, found structural and functional differences in the hippocampus between children who still nap and those who have stopped. These new longitudinal studies will test the hypothesis that the timing of nap transition corresponds to measurable development in the hippocampus: when the hippocampus can retain day-time memories until night-time sleep, children become ready to give up naps.
“Our research consistently shows an interaction between sleep and brain growth,” Spencer explains. “We believe children transition out of naps when their brain can hold the day’s information until night sleep. Until then, naps serve a vital role in protecting memory.”
Spencer’s preschool study is a collaboration with Tracy Riggins, a developmental psychologist at the University of Maryland who specializes in memory development, and Gregory Hancock, a UMD professor of human development and quantitative methodology. The team expects these coordinated efforts to produce robust, generalizable results that can guide practice and policy.
Riggins adds that clarifying how the brain supports nap transitions in typically developing children will also help identify targeted interventions for neurodiverse children—such as those with autism or ADHD—whose sleep patterns and memory processing can differ from the typical trajectory.
Study design and procedures
The preschool study will recruit 180 children ages 3 to 5 and follow them for one year with assessments at three time points. Measurements include activity-tracking watches and EEG recordings to document naps and nighttime sleep, memory tasks administered before and after naps, and an MRI scan during the final session to assess hippocampal development.
Parents have expressed interest in contributing to this research. Monica and David Dumlao of Chicopee enrolled their four-year-old son after learning about Spencer’s work, citing a desire to understand the neuroscience of early brain development and the practical importance of naps.
In the infant component, Spencer will study 140 infants between 7 and 9 months old during the transition from two daily naps (morning and afternoon) to a single, longer afternoon nap. Infants will play simple memory games before and after naps while their brain activity is recorded noninvasively using an electrode cap. Sessions will occur at roughly 9, 12, and 15 months to capture the progression of nap consolidation and hippocampal maturation.
Spencer expects that as infants prepare to drop the morning nap, staying awake during that morning interval will cause progressively less memory impairment; however, the afternoon nap is likely to remain critically important at these ages.
Implications for parents, educators, and policymakers
These studies aim to provide concrete, longitudinal evidence linking nap behavior to memory performance and brain development. For educators and childcare providers, the results should help shape nap schedules and transitions that respect children’s neurodevelopmental needs rather than relying solely on age-based guidelines. For parents, the findings can clarify when occasional missed naps are harmless for typically developing children and when consistent daytime sleep remains essential.
Ultimately, this research seeks to move nap policy from intuition and habit toward evidence-based practice—ensuring that sleep routines in preschools and homes support both learning and healthy brain maturation.
Parents interested in participating in the preschool sleep study are invited to fill out a screening form here; the screening form for the infant nap study is available here.
About this sleep, memory, and neurodevelopment research news
Author: Patty Shillington
Source: UMass
Contact: Patty Shillington – UMass
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News