I've started the kid on a new "training program" whereby he learns to soothe himself to sleep. It's already working, to an encouraging degree, after just two days of preliminary efforts. He's sleeping for longer periods at night and waking up less; and he's taking excellent naps during the day.
It does seem that sleep begets sleep, as many of the sleep books indicate. In other words, better sleeping at night leads to better napping during the day, and vice versa. It's counter-intuitive--one would think that more sleep at night would mean less of a need to nap during the day--but that doesn't seem to be the case for babies (and maybe not for adults either). As the books indicate, less sleep at night or during the day raises cortisol (stress hormone) levels, which makes it tougher for a baby to sleep, not easier. In other words, they remain partially wired throughout the day and night, unless they're getting enough overall sleep.
If this keeps up, it will drastically change my life. Simply put, I will have time to do--something, beyond this fifteen-minute-a-day blog, beyond little scraps of exercise, reading, studying, piano-playing and organizing. I know that the total daily free time I have will only increase by about two hours; but what a golden two hours! What a remarkable thing two hours can be. I feel like doing a pirouette on the kitchen floor just thinking about it. And perhaps best of all--I will sleep.
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