The irrelevance of bedtime

Isaac sleeps an average of 12 hours per 24-hour period. If he has a long night's sleep, he has a short nap the next day. If he has a short night (like the nine and a half hours of Thursday night) he has a long nap the next day -- like Friday's startling three hour nap.

For him, having a fixed bedtime is irrelevant, because what really matters is this 12-hour cycle. When we're planning what time to put him to sleep, we need to know how long he's been awake. It doesn't matter if it is 8:00 p.m., his alleged bedtime -- if he hasn't been awake long enough that day, despite our best efforts he simply won't fall asleep. That's frustrating for all of us. On the other hand, if he hasn't slept enough recently, he may be ready to go to bed early. Yes, that sounds stupidly self-evident, and perhaps it is. I just know that I'm glad to be able to check Isaac's Trixie Tracker to see when tonight's bedtime will be -- and as it looks like Isaac is headed for an earlier bedtime than usual, we'd better get home promptly from Craig's birthday dinner. I'm sure at 7:30 p.m. Isaac will let us know that he's ready for bed, but I'd prefer advance warning!

Some children sleep a lot more than Isaac does. A little girl in his playgroup allegedly sleeps 12 hours at night and takes two two-hour naps! But it goes beyond anecdote -- Trixie Tracker lets us compare Isaac's sleep average to that of other users. On this chart, Isaac's sleep average is graphed in dark blue, hovering at about 12 hours a day over the last ten months. (Except for when he was nine months old and slept an average of 12 and a half hours -- oh, good times!) The light blue line is the average sleep of other Trixie Tracker users -- it's at least an hour greater.













I'm impressed by the consistency of Isaac's average sleep. Over the last four months there was hardly any variation, and he's always been below the average of his peers. Maybe he will grow up to be one of those people who doesn't need much sleep! That seems like a great personal advantage. Sleep can be so time-consuming, which I know because I do best if I can sleep nine hours a night. (Those were the days...) I'm trying to remember what famous people didn't need very much sleep: Thomas Edison, I think, and maybe Salvador Dali, and Bill Clinton. I guess Isaac could be in worse company.