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Three Tips to Help Your Child Spring Forward with Ease

Daylight Saving Time worries? It's no problem!

By Amy Lage February 27, 2015
Daylight Saving Time will be upon us on Sunday, March 8. For most of us, rolling the clocks forward is bittersweet. It signals that spring will soon be here, along with warmer weather and the promise of finally getting out of the house after a particularly long and hard winter! However, it also means the loss of one hour of sleep. If you are a parent, that one-hour loss becomes even more cumbersome, as it means also helping your child assimilate while trying to keep them on schedule. In our exhausted parental state, this can seem tricky. The good news is that “springing forward” tends to be less problematic for most little ones than the end of Daylight Saving in the fall (and may even help parents of early risers finally establish a later wake time). Here are a few tips on how to ease your child’s transition to the new time:

Let the Sun Shine . . . and Then Close All of the Blinds
We all have internal biological clocks called circadian rhythms. These clocks create an internal timing mechanism for sleep based on cues from lightness (daytime) and darkness (nighttime). Sleeping in sync with these rhythms will ensure that we get the most restorative and best-quality sleep possible. When we physically shift our time clocks, our body does not immediately know that this change has occurred. Older children and adults easily adjust to this change over several days, but babies and toddlers may benefit from some assistance.

A great way to help accelerate your little one’s adjustment to the new time is to regulate their light exposure. As they will now be waking earlier in the morning and going to bed earlier at night, we want to provide extra “light” in the morning and extra “dark” in the late afternoon and evening. First thing when you wake up in the morning, be sure to open all of your curtains and blinds and let in the natural light. Get out in the morning for some fresh air or open all of the blinds and play in a sunlit room. Then, in the evening, assist the adjustment for your child’s clock by making your home as dim as possible in the hour or so leading up to bedtime. Shut off any unnecessary lights and close curtains and blinds. Keeping the activity level in your home as calm as possible will also ease your child into a sleepy frame of mind even if there is still daylight outside.

As the days grow longer and it stays brighter out well into the evening, it is crucial to ensure that your child’s room is as dark as possible so that it is conducive to sleep. One suggestion is to invest in room-darkening or “blackout” curtains, which are available at many stores and online and do a great job of keeping light out of little ones’ rooms.

Rip the Band-Aid Off
For older children or those who adapt easily to schedule changes, your best bet is to switch everything to the new clock “cold turkey.” Make sure you are consistent and move out all other daily cues by an hour (like meal times and bath time) so your child is still able to follow these events and understand what is coming next. Children thrive on following schedules and social cues, so moving everything consistently will help their adjustment. Note that you may have to rouse your child at his/her normal wake-time for a few days because of the loss of one hour of sleep.

Slow and Steady
For babies or those who are not very adaptable to schedule changes, take things a bit slower. If your baby is napping multiple times during the day (or you are concerned that moving to the new time “cold turkey” will be too stressful for both of you), you can make the switch gradually over a few days by slowly shifting their sleep time and all of their parts of their daily routine in increments of 30 minutes.

For example, maybe your normal schedule is:

Breakfast: 7:30 a.m.
Nap One: 9 a.m.
Lunch: 11:30 a.m.
Nap Two: 12:30 p.m.
Nap Three: 3 p.m.
Dinner: 5:30 p.m.
Bath: 6:15 p.m.
Bedtime 7 p.m.

So, on Sunday, March 8, it will change to:

Breakfast: 8 a.m.
Nap One: 9:30 a.m.
Lunch: 12 p.m.
Nap Two: 1 p.m.
Nap Three: 3:30 p.m.
Dinner: 6 p.m.
Bath: 6:45 p.m.
Bedtime 7:30 p.m.

After a day or two, you can remove the remaining 30 minutes to bring your child all the way to the new clock time. Again, remember that we are not just changing sleep times, but moving all cues (meals, bath etc.) in the same increments so that your child has an easier time following what comes next and understands what to expect. This will help your child ease into the time change more smoothly.

However you decide to handle Daylight Saving Time, try to be patient with yourself and your child and keep in mind that it may take some time for your child’s sleep schedule to regularize. As with anything to do with our children’s sleep, the key to success is consistency. And do not fret — if you didn’t do anything at all, your child’s body clock would work it out all on its own in time. Here’s to a sunny and warm spring!

Amy Lage is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Family Sleep Institute certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant. She is founder of Well Rested Baby. She offers a host of services including in-person, phone, email and Skype/FaceTime consultations that can be tailored to meet any family’s needs and schedule. Please email her at amy@wellrestedbaby.com with any questions. Be sure to follow WRB on Facebook and Twitter for more great sleep tips!