The one thing that no one has mentioned is that the best lighting is always in layers. I would never have just can lights in my bedroom. Can lights / down lights are usually used for general lighting, not task lighting. Bedside lamps or wall sconces are an additional layer that provide low levels of light for reading at night or when low level lighting is needed. The other thing to remember is most of the time when you are in your bedroom, your eyes are closed. No one ever wants to walk into a dimly lit bedroom, think ceiling fan/ light combo with "soft white" incandescent lamps. You also don't want to be blinded either. However, dimming the amount of light is usually much easier and cheaper than trying to add additional light fixtures. I wouldn't rule out using can lights in my bedroom, but I also wouldn't want it as my only source of light in the bedroom. I also don't agree with Renovator8's comment about the trim size for cans. A 6" can is the most commonly sized down light. Most builders use them because they are common and therefore cheap. They can designed for most common household lamps including both PAR, R style, and "A" style lamps. "A" style lamps are the pear shaped incandescent lamps that most people refer to as bulbs or lamps for their home. An "A" lamp does a great shop of spreading light, but not at delivering it. Most of the light is usually lost within the fixture. Many builders use PAR or R style lamps because due to the way the lamps are shaped, most of the light is delivered to the work space and has a decent spread. If a lamp or bulb is seen from below the ceiling plane, then two things are going on. One - the can light is cheap and not deep enough. Or two (more likely) - someone is using a lamp that is not designed for this fixture. This can be a compact fluorescent "Par" style lamp or a larger wattage R or PAR lamp. Either way, the fixture is not being used as intended. Most manufacturers of down lights have a wattage label inside the housing, but there should also be a sticker on the trim indicating the correct style of lamps to use. Whether or not someone pays attention to it is another matter. I'll get off my soapbox now. FYI - I'm a manufacturer's rep of over 100 different commercial and residential lighting lines. All I do every day is sell light fixtures and look at different lamps.

Sometimes people imagine the bedroom as being a cozy [or romantic] retreat, and if that were all it was, switched lamps would be fine. But most of us do more than that in our bedrooms-- maybe we have a closet there without light, or get dressed in the bedroom if we don't have a separate dressing. We might exercise there, expect the kids to play their rooms, or keep the grownups computer there-- all activities that might need a bit more light than a pair of bedside lights will provide. So I'm doing all my guest rooms [as well as the master suites] with tiffany glass overhead lights. Each is different, and each room will have a theme color so I can more easily direct people to their rooms, or let my cleaning lady know which rooms have been used since her last visit. Finding the right lights at an acceptible price has been one of the more pleasant shopping projects of the build-- much lower stress since I won't be looking at them everyday.

She should have focused task lighting at the desk anyway, no matter what you decide for overall room lighting. That way she can have localized bright light for reading and writing while not having the entire room lit up like an operating room (which wastes electricity as well as just being aesthetically unpleasant). If she uses a computer at this desk, glare on the screen from overhead lighting can cause painful eye strain and headaches. Attractive adjustable desk lamps can be very inexpensive or cost a mint depending on what you get and where - if the desk is small and you don't want to waste space on a lamp, a swing-arm lamp mounted on the wall is an excellent solution. Many of that style are corded so you don't have to worry about fishing wires around in the walls. Lamps that take a three-way bulb are particularly good for task lighting.

From my experience replacing four bedroom fixtures: 1) "UL approved" doesn't mean a d... thing. Any Chinese manufacturer will print that on a box, and practically all lights are made in China now, even expensive ones. Examine the wires carefully - watch out for aluminum. Your lighting department clerk may tell you that copper is legally required and the silver color is because the copper wires have been dipped in solder. No, they haven't been, unless the silvery part is limited to a little unstranded cap at the end. Silvery strands = aluminum wire = fire hazard when connected to copper house wire. Examine all the fixtures - one out of three otherwise identical fixtures from HD had the aluminum wires. We removed a light fixture that had aluminum wires - some nasty charring going on there. 2) A fixture open at the top collects more insects, unless it is open at the bottom too. 3) Children will stand on the bed with a baseball bat/ ninja stick in hand so that they can see themselves in the mirror, and they will leap off to see themselves flying with the stick held high...get fixtures with standard measurement replaceable shades. 4) If you use compact fluorescent bulbs, be aware that the "brighter" bulbs are longer (longer twist for more light, but not more intense light) and that the longer bulbs may not fit in your shade.