Is the desire to sleep something innate?

I have this memory.

I don't know how old I was, but I know what house I was living in so I can't have been younger than four. I do know that I was still taking naps.

My mom woke me up and told me that someone had come asking for my older brothers and I to go swimming with them. She said I could get up early from my nap and go if I wanted to. I declined the offer in favor of going back to sleep.

Sleep and I are good friends and it seems we've been that way since I was at least four years old.

This is part of the reason I am so baffled at my twins' behavior the past ten days.

Ten days ago they stopped sleeping in cribs.

The transition, while not as easy as it was with Jonzy, it easier than I expected it to be. I'm hardly losing any sleep at all;) But those poor boys are so tired! The whining! The crying! My ears are bleeding from it all.

Wouldn't it stand to reason that a person, when given the opportunity, would sleep as much as his body required??? Then why in the devil aren't my boys sleeping?!?!? They have more than ample opportunity. Al was practically falling out of his chair at lunch today, while Goose couldn't find happiness in anything on his plate (an offering of classics that he usually loves). I took them upstairs right after lunch. That was almost two hours ago and they still aren't asleep. They'd much rather be whispering out the window and opening dresser drawers instead.

I'm following routine. Everything is as it was before the switch to big boy beds. All that's different is the bed and the location (right next to their old bedroom). We've even made it dark in there.

I am so confused and frustrated. I'm trying not to be angry. I know that most of the tears and whines come from insufficient sleep. Every time they whine or cry about something mundane, I try to remember how I had the urge to cry about the stupidest things when they were brand new and I was so tired. I know the feeling. The thing is though, I am giving them more than enough time to sleep and they're not using it. Each whine makes my back seize up. I can't take it much longer.

Is it the twin factor? Al isn't tired enough to sleep so he keeps Goose up until he is tired but then Goose hits a second wave and is no longer tired so he keeps Al up, kind of thing? Are they just not going to sleep when given the freedom to because it's not a personality trait of theirs?

Why? Why? Why? WHY?

Phew. They're asleep. Now I'll probably have to wake them up before they naturally would so that they'll go to sleep tonight. Oy.