One variation of a method for monitoring sleep of a user includes: assigning a collective wakefulness model—generated from sleep data collected from a set of other users—to the user for a first time period; storing a first set of vitals data collected by a wearable device worn by the user during first time period; extrapolating, from the collective wakefulness model, a first waking time of the user for a first sleep event during first time period based on data in the first set of vitals data; queuing the first waking time for transmission to a mobile computing device linked to the account for presentation to a guardian of the user; in response to expiration of the first time period, generating an individual wakefulness model specific to the user based on the first set of vitals data collected during the first time period.