At the risk of sounding like a zillion other parents who think their child is gifted or special in some way, I have done my homework on this one. My kid sleeps less than 10 hours a day, sometimes 8. The average newborn should sleep about 16 hours a day, but ours probably never slept more than 12.
I noticed how alert our newborn was early on, and so did the nurses and doctors, who all commented on how much our newborn watched the surroundings and how little sleep was required. As time has gone on, the baby learned early to hold its head up all the time on its own and interacts with toys and its play station. I am happy to see the baby developing so fast (my wife wants this stage to last as long as possible: something about that maternal instinct of needing to be needed), but the sleep thing has become more of an issue lately.
I was reading about how sleep is seen as the enemy by CEOs and defense contractors for the military but people forget just why we need sleep. It may be that gifted people sleep less than others; that's been proposed before:
Also:
Hyperactive is a word often used to describe gifted children as well as children with ADHD. As with attention span, children with ADHD have a high activity level, but this activity level is often found across situations (Barkley, 1990). A large proportion of gifted children are highly active too. As many as one-fourth may require less sleep; however, their activity is generally focused and directed (Clark, 1992; Webb, Meckstroth, & Tolan, 1982), in contrast to the behavior of children with ADHD. The intensity of gifted children's concentration often permits them to spend long periods of time and much energy focusing on whatever truly interests them. Their specific interests may not coincide, however, with the desires and expectations of teachers or parents.I'm not sure if our baby is gifted or not, but I'm hopeful that's what it is from the evidence I've seen. Now I know you're a genius if you're reading my blog, and I know that I'm a little fixated on the idea of giftedness generally and especially studying the lives of the highly gifted. Thus this may be me fixating on something that doesn't exist, but that I hope does. Otherwise, our baby may be autistic or something...but I'm not too worried about it, since it makes eye contact, smiles, coos and goos, &c.
