There's one question everybody wants the answer to when they have a littlelittle baby

[conuly]

And that's "When the heck is s/he going to sleep through the night?"

Of course, the only answer to that is "When s/he is ready". Maybe you can push it along a bit, I don't know, but short of drugging your children or hitting them over the head, it is unlikely that you can actually *force* sleep. Sleep settings, definitely - but after you stick them in bed (or snuggle up with them, or whatever you do), you can't make them sleep.

What's interesting is that it seems that, left to our own devices (which means, without the devices we make to illuminate the light), adults don't "sleep through the night" either.

Yeah, I know, Wikipedia, but this matches up with something I've experienced as well. When I go to sleep early, I wake up for one or two hours in the middle of the night. And I've read about this before. I've even posted the same NYTimes article that guy references over here once.

What does that mean for you and me? Probably nothing, but it *is* fascinating to think about.

Comments

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

All my life I have struggled to keep a steady 24-hour sleep-wake pattern. If I force it strictly, sometimes I can manage it. But if I don't keep close control of it, I will naturally stay awake about 20 hours and then sleep for 9, with breaks of either in between on occasion. Sometimes even if I do try to force it into a "normal" pattern, it is difficult to go to sleep and/or wake at the preferred time.

Perhaps some or even most people can regulate their sleep/wake patterns to steadily rotate on 24 hours, but all the sleep aid "medications" and the widespread use of alarm clocks make me wonder if even that is true.

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

All my life I have struggled to keep a steady 24-hour sleep-wake pattern. If I force it strictly, sometimes I can manage it. But if I don't keep close control of it, I will naturally stay awake about 20 hours and then sleep for 9, with breaks of either in between on occasion. Sometimes even if I do try to force it into a "normal" pattern, it is difficult to go to sleep and/or wake at the preferred time.

Perhaps some or even most people can regulate their sleep/wake patterns to steadily rotate on 24 hours, but all the sleep aid "medications" and the widespread use of alarm clocks make me wonder if even that is true.