Ny times article on children's sleep

I was particularly interested in this concept, which I was not aware of:

"In the early 1980s, Dr. Alexander A. Borbély, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, posited a “two-process model of sleep regulation.”

The “circadian process,” which has been localized to a specific place in the brain, works a little like a clock, tying our sleep to schedules and to cycles of light and dark, regardless of how much we have or have not slept. This interacts with the “homeostatic process” which works differently, pushing us harder toward sleep the longer we stay awake and building up sleep pressure, which can be measured via EEG recordings."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/he...general&src=me

Interesting article!

When I looked after my niece for a year, I had her on kind of a schedule because I thought it would be good for her to have some structure. It was good for me, too, because after the first couple of weeks she was used to taking her naps at the same times and would just go right to sleep. I pretty much just made naptime about 2:30pm and sometimes like 4PM, because those were the times when she seemed to already be very tired (she'd sit there or lay there and grab a blankie). She was 6 months when I first started taking care of her so she needed a lot of sleep.

I think that both children and adults all have individual sleep needs, and that if it's possible, you should go with what your body needs. So I don't really believe in limiting a child's naps. Although you have to be careful not to let them nap too late into the evening or else they won't fall asleep at bedtime. :P