No body was forcing the child to sleep. He was being asked to give his body a chance to lay still for a period of time to rest and relax and regroup. And that is necessary for a healthy brain. In most cases the time required is one hour or less for this age group.
This was totally about a power struggle in which the adults had non. That is not the way it should be. As the adults what we say should be what goes. There is a reason an adult is put in authority over a child.