No effect of napping on episodic foresight and prospective memory in kindergarten children

Konrad, Carolin; Voigt, Babett · 2025 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1111/jsr.14387

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Summary

This study investigated whether napping enhances episodic foresight (planning for future events) and prospective memory (remembering to perform a delayed intention) in 2–3-year-old children. While sleep-dependent memory consolidation is well-established in adults and shown to benefit declarative memory in young children, it remains unclear if napping improves future-oriented cognition. The authors hypothesized that napping after encoding future-relevant information would improve performance in these tasks compared to staying awake. The researchers employed a quasi-experimental design involving 63 kindergarten children divided into a nap condition (n = 20) and a wake condition (n = 43). Participants were assigned based on habitual napping status. In Part 1, children were presented with a locked box containing toys in one tent and instructed to remember the problem and a rule to ring a bell before entering tents. A 2.5-hour break followed, during which the nap group slept (verified by actigraphy) and the wake group remained awake. In Part 2, children selected an item to solve the box problem (episodic foresight) and executed the bell-ringing intention (prospective memory). Statistical analyses included nonparametric tests and residualization to control for age differences, as the nap group was significantly younger than the wake group. Contrary to the hypothesis, napping did not significantly affect performance in either the episodic foresight or prospective memory tasks. After controlling for age, there were no significant differences between the nap and wake conditions. Instead, task performance was primarily explained by age and general memory effects. Correlation analyses revealed that age was positively associated with prospective memory scores, while episodic foresight performance showed no significant correlation with age or napping status. The study also noted that older children were less likely to be habitual nappers, creating a confound where the wake group was older on average. The findings suggest that napping does not confer specific benefits for episodic foresight or prospective memory in young children, despite its known role in consolidating declarative memory. The results imply that the mechanisms supporting future-oriented cognition may differ from those supporting standard declarative recall, or that the developmental trajectory of these skills is driven more by age-related maturation than by immediate sleep consolidation. The authors conclude that further research with stricter controls and evaluations of pre-nap memory strength is necessary to fully elucidate the interplay between sleep, age, and future-oriented cognition in early childhood.

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• prospective memory interruptions