Originally Posted by Unregistered:
My son's daycare provider purposely makes the room really dark and puts the children in play yards with pillows and blankets so they think it's night time and will sleep for 3-4 hours. All parents at the daycare have complained about their children not sleeping at night, but she does this so she can do whatever she wants to do. Or she often sleeps too while the children are naping (I would love to be able to take a nap at my desk in the middle of my day!! 
...).
I have a hard time believing any provider would let a child sleep 3-4 hours. I think the parents who are complaining about the child not sleeping are the parents who want the child to go to bed right after dinner. I understand the parents are tired and have things to do, but it's not the provider's problem. The parent needs to parent.
Now, a four year old probably doesn't need a nap every day. But, a two year old still needs a nap. The parents need to make arrangements in their schedule if having their child awake at 8:30 or 9:00 is a huge problem, they need to find a way to make it work without saying "I think little precious needs to start staying awake and should be highly entertained during naptime because it's starting to upset my alone time".
Of course we make it comfey and quiet for sleeping... that would defeat the purpose of nap time to have the kids sit down without pillows and a dark room.