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Daylight Savings Time Tips For Older Children




As a sleep expert, this time of year brings in a flood of questions from parents.  Daylight savings wreaks havoc on our body clocks and children are even more sensitive to it.  Babies on schedules are pretty straight forward (see my Instagram post on the four steps to adjust).

But when we’re dealing with kids who are in daycare, school, or otherwise have a set schedule that can’t be tweaked until the day of the time change, it requires a bit of a different approach. 

 

So with that in mind, here are some tips to help your little one adjust to the time change as quickly and effectively as possible.

 

Get them outdoors

 

Sunlight and exercise are two of the biggest contributors to a good night’s sleep. Exercise obviously helps to burn off energy and gets the body ready for bedtime, but the sun also plays a very interesting role here.

Blue light, during the day, helps immensely in melatonin production, which is the magical elixir when it comes to sleep. It also helps to regulate our internal clocks, which naturally produce cortisol during the day for energy and alertness, and melatonin when it gets dark to facilitate sleep. And the sun, despite its appearance, is the mother of all blue light sources.

Getting your little one a good dose of sunlight during the day will work wonders in helping them get to sleep on the first night of the time change.

 

Change bedtime incrementally

 

Even though your child may have to get up at the same time in the morning, you may still be able to make gradual changes around bedtime. Moving their bedtime either forward or back, depending on which way the clocks are changing, by 15 minutes every two or three nights leading up to the time change, can lessen the effect it has on their schedule compared to a one-hour switch overnight. Keep in mind that overtiredness is the nemesis of good sleep, so whatever you do, don’t just keep them up for an extra hour the night before the clocks go forward. Always error on the side of more sleep. If they wake up a little early in the morning, that’s OK, and preferable to them staying awake for too long at night.

 

 

Routine, routine, routine

I know I’ve probably said it a hundred times at this point, but that bedtime routine that you’ve carefully created is still one of the most effective tools in the sleep toolbox. It does so much more than just getting your child into their PJs with their teeth brushed. When a bedtime routine is done repeatedly in the same order, night in and night out, the first step of the routine signals the brain that bedtime is imminent, which starts the release of melatonin and shuts off the cortisol, so by the time your child lays their head on the pillow, they’re already primed for a great night’s sleep.

 

So avoid the temptation to modify the routine in order to accommodate any shifts in the schedule. However long your little one’s bedtime routine typically takes, get it started precisely that long before you want them to get to sleep. Whatever changes you need to make to the schedule to fit the time change in, do it elsewhere in the day and keep the bedtime routine intact.

 

Morning time

 

What can typically happen the first week especially after ‘falling back’ is early morning rising.  It may seem like morning time to your child’s body clock for the first few days.  Blacking out the light with proper window coverings becomes crucial here!  I like @sleepout because they actually do the trick!  Even the littlest of light peaking through can signal the brain to start to release cortisol (our wake up hormone) that tells our bodies its time to start the day.  So the best way to help your childs body clock adjust to sleep in later is to darken the room.  Bonus tip: toddler clocks are a key tool for your preschooler or school aged child.  Not only are they a great visual tool that helps children understand when wake up time is, they are super useful when adjusting to the new time.  When you introduce the clock to your child, be sure to sit with them to explain what the changes in the clock mean and direction on what they should do.  Tip: have the conversation multiple times before the first night.  Children learn by repetition so it may take a few days to sink in.  If you are already using a toddler clock when the time change happens, you can start slow with adjusting the morning time by 30 mins for the first 3 days instead of expecting them to wait a full hour before getting up for the day.

 

Be consistent

 

Ideally, your little one will slide right into the adapted schedule, but it’s just as likely that they’ll need about a week for everything to fall back into place. Be patient, stick to your guns, and don’t make any changes to the status quo. They’ll get into the groove a lot quicker if there are no other modifications around their bedtime and sleep habits.


If your child is struggling with sleep, the time change will often make it worse. It is best to wait to address their sleep issues at least one month prior to the time change or wait until a couple weeks after. If you are looking for direction in helping your child get better sleep, I am here to help! My 4 week family programs are designed to take your child from an anxious, disrupted sleeper to a happy and confident one by program end.


Book a free call here to chat some more about your current issues and my 1:1 programs.

 

 



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