For children (like mine) who won't go gently into that good night

Interesting article from Slate on kids, sleep, sleep deprivation, and the like.

It still takes Sam between 30 minutes and an hour to fully settle down and go to sleep. This can involve singing, crying, screaming, playing, and reading in any number of combinations. Last night we could hear him on the monitor giving his trucks (his bed is like a garage with the number of vehicles it contains) a time-out for not listening.

We really should tape some of what he says in the moments before sleep; it's like having a two-year-old William S. Burroughs in shorty PJs upstairs.

That said, I shouldn't complain because he still stays in bed. It hasn't yet occurred to him that a very powerful form of sleep protest would be a walk-out.

We're in for it when he makes that connection...