According to the National Sleep Foundation….

Toddlers need about 12-14 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period. When they reach about 18 months of age their naptimes will decrease to once a day lasting about one to three hours. Naps should not occur too close to bedtime as they may delay sleep at night.

Many toddlers experience sleep problems including resisting going to bed and nighttime awakenings. Nighttime fears and nightmares are also common.

Many factors can lead to sleep problems. Toddlers’ drive for independence and an increase in their motor, cognitive and social abilities can interfere with sleep. In addition, their ability to get out of bed, separation anxiety, the need for autonomy and the development of the child’s imagination can lead to sleep problems. Daytime sleepiness and behavior problems may signal poor sleep or a sleep problem.

We have a toddler that gets about 12 hours of sleep a day, if we are lucky.  He does not want to go to sleep.

“No sleep mommy/daddy!”

He is in bed, just not sleeping.  He will sing to himself.  Loudly.  Talk to his cars.  Loudly.  “Read” his book.  Loudly.  Sometimes he will just lay there and quietly play with his cars or books.  Occassionally we will hear a crash downstairs only to find one (or several) of his books have hit the floor.

He goes to bed at 8pm and we are usually hoping that he will be asleep by 9pm.

Oh to be little again and have such endless energy!  I wish I could suck a little bit of their energy out of them.  I would love to go to bed that early but there is just too much to do around the house.  They have no idea how lucky they are.  I would trade their going to bed early for doing the household finances.  Of course then our mortgage payment would be used for online shopping charges for cheese, juice and a plethora of matchbox cars.