Tips for Handling Daylight Savings Time and Your Child’s Sleep

It’s almost here – the dreaded time change. Fear not, I have some tips on how to make the time change a non-event. This year, Daylight Savings ends on November 6^th. The fall time change can be the trickier of the two, as the clock turns back. So, when your child wakes at their typical 6:30am time on Sunday morning, it’s actually going to be 5:30am. Ouch.

I’m going to tell you what I think are the two best ways to help your child adjust to the time change:

1. My personal preference for how to handle the time change is to DO NOTHING! That’s right, don’t spend a single second worrying about it. Yes, Sunday morning will be painful when your child wakes at their typical 6:30am time and it’s actually 5:30am, but then you will just go about your day doing things at the right/typical times based on the new time. Okay, I will recommend you to do something slightly different on Sunday for naps and bedtime. If your child normally naps at 12pm, put them down for their nap at 11:30am (the new 11:30am) on Sunday and if they normally go to bed at 7pm, put them down at 6:30pm (the new 6:30pm) Sunday night. Then on Monday, go back to their normal 12pm nap and 7pm bedtime schedule. How easy is that?!?
2. If you really feel the need to do something in advance, adjust 15 minutes a day every other day for the 8 days leading up to the time change. So, if your baby or child typically goes to bed at 7pm, adjust bedtime to 7:15pm, then two days later to 7:30pm, and so on for the week leading up to the change. If your child naps, you will also bump the start of their naptime out 15 minutes every other day along with the bedtime shift. If these adjustments start to lead to earlier wakings, pause a day or two to let your little once adjust. Because the rest of their daily schedule will be on the current time schedule rather than the new time schedule, making these shifts in advance can be challenging for sensitive sleepers or those already not sleeping well. If adjusting before the time change is causing sleep struggles, you can go back to their regular schedule and go with Option 1.

Tip for children 2 years and older: Using a toddler clock (My Tot Clock is my personal favorite) can help significantly with the time change. If you go with Option 1, make sure you adjust the clock on Sunday after your child gets up so your little one will know when it’s okay to get up from their nap and in the morning. If you go with Option 2, adjust the clock each day – pushing the wake up out 15 minutes each time you push the bedtime out 15 minutes.