While this isn't the regular sleep routine that we think of, it is actually a lot more common than you might realize--not necessarily staying up all night, but definitely staying up very late and sleeping much later in the day. Many families that have a parent who works a late shift are doing this more and more in order to spend more time together. Children are very resilient, and it sounds like this little girl is able to spend time with both her parents due to their "tweaking" of her sleep schedule. We do a have a certain circadian rhythm that coaxes us to sleep at night and wake in the morning, but many would argue that this is a learned schedule from many many years before the light bulb when people slept at night because it was too dark to work. We didn't have a "third shift" in the way that we do now, so nighttime was a generally unproductive time that was reserved for family time and sleep. The only issue I can see here is that this couple may have problems in the future when they try to adjust your granddaugther's sleep/wake schedule to accomodate school. As long as she is getting plenty of sunshine (even later in the day) and spending time with others to develop her social skills, she is probably benefitting more from the fact that she can spend time with both of her parents and not be "shushed" and tip toe around in the mornings so Daddy can get his sleep.
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Lori
