Thank you, that is exactly what I was thinking. Sleep absolutely has an effect on mood, development, health, ect. Studies show that obesity & add can be linked to too little sleep. Not only that, but we all know that a child that is better rested will be able to fall asleep easier, thus making sleep training less painful. Many people follow ferber, I wonder what effect this will have? I suppose that his earlier studies were mostly stay at home moms & his newer studies included a wider variety of people?
And I also think it depends on how you define 'need'. Can a child appear relatively happy/healthy on less sleep? Many can, yes. But how is that affecting their development? I certainly can't say, and I'm not sure that Ferber can either. I have a feeling that a lot of behavioral stuff can be attributed to lack of appropriate sleep and so many parents don't even take that into account.
I can attest to this. I had a chronically ot lo who only napped for 30 min until she was 10 months old. I think she just got used to the ot & was able to function fine & be happy, but I tell you what a difference I saw in her after I got her nights & naps straightened out!
Her eyes were wider, she laughed more, played more, and had this spurt in development shortly after getting out of this state. It is weird w/ the 30 min naps though, after a 30 min she would pop up & be ready to go. To this day she is way more cranky after a long nap (even after the 2 hr nap the other day) then after a 30 min nap. Most people & books said "if she seems happy then she must be getting enough sleep". I was never fooled into thinking that, I just knew something was wrong & her life could be better. Another thing, bw is the only method that really tries to correct the 30 min naps. The other books gave some tips on extending, then if you couldn't extend don't worry about it, that must be all they need. Not once did I read about tweaking routines, which leads me back to the whole ot issue again.
