The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of silence, story reading, acapella singing, and guitar playing on inducing sleep in preschool-aged children within the first 15 minutes of naptime. Thirty-five two- and four-year old children from five classrooms at two facilities participated in the study. Each classroom scheduled afternoon naptime following lunch prior to and during this study. Participants in all five classrooms had scheduled naptimes for three days under each of the following four conditions: (1) silence, (2) story reading, (3) acapella singing, and (4) guitar playing. An observation form designed for data collection was used by five observers to record the number of children who had: (1) eyes open and talking, (2) eyes open and moving, (3) eyes open and not moving, (4) eyes closed and talking, (5) eyes closed and moving, (6) eyes closed and not moving at 15-second intervals during the first fifteen minutes of naptime. Data recorded in the "eyes closed and not moving" section of the observation form was used to determine the number of children asleep under each condition after 15 minutes of naptime. Results revealed no significant difference in the number of children asleep under the four naptime conditions. The rank order of the most to fewest number of children asleep under the four conditions was: story reading, silence, acapella singing and guitar playing.

The Effect of Silence, Story Reading, Acapella Singing and Guitar Playing on Inducing Sleep in Preschool Children.