Daylight Savings Sleep Tips

This coming Sunday morning, March 11th at 2 am, the clock springs forward. This means that we lose one hour of sleep and gain and hour of daylight. For some, this is a welcome change as it nudges your child’s wake up time later. For others, it may raise questions about how to keep your child on the current schedule. Regardless of which camp you fall into, here are some tips to guide all of you.

Scenario A: Take advantage of the time change to move your child’s schedule forward by an hour.

1. Put your child to bed on Saturday night per usual. Move your clocks ahead one hour.

2. Let your child sleep until sh/e awakens naturally. If that is normally 6 am, the clocks will now read 7 am.

3. Proceed with your day but be sure to put your child down one hour later per the clock (e.g. nap time used to be 12-2, now it’s 1-3; bedtime was 7 pm, now it’s 8 pm).

Scenario B: Keep the current schedule/clock

1. Put your child to bed on Saturday night per usual. Move your clocks ahead one hour.

2. Wake your child up at the normal wake up time per the new clock. This means that your child will lose one hour of sleep overnight.

3. Proceed with your daily scheule using the current clock (nap times/intervals stay the same).

**If you’d like to take baby steps, you can wake your child up 30 minutes early on Friday morning, and another 30 minutes early on Sunday. This will get you to the “new” time more gradually.

With added daylight, this is the time of year that I recommend getting blackout shades and considering using a sounds machine to muffle the sound of birds chirping early in the morning. I have posted my favorites under the swell picks on the website.