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Spring Time Change Cheat Sheet – Download Allison’s free printable guide to plug in your child’s schedule and follow a clear plan for the time change.

If time changes make you anxious every year, you are not alone—but the good news is that the spring time change is typically the easier one to manage. In this episode, Allison walks you through exactly how to adjust your child’s sleep when the clocks spring forward, without triggering early mornings, short naps, or a full-blown sleep regression.

You’ll learn why you don’t need to prepare days in advance, what to do on the actual day of the time change, and how to get your child fully back on track by Monday morning. Allison also answers the question many parents secretly hope the answer to: Can daylight saving time be used to permanently shift an early riser to a later wake time?

This episode includes clear, practical guidance for babies four months and older, toddlers, and young children, plus specific advice for families with newborns. Allison also shares a free Spring Time Change Cheat Sheet you can download by CLICKING HERE to easily map out your child’s adjusted schedule.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
— Why the spring time change is easier than the fall time change
— Why gradually adjusting bedtime before daylight saving time can backfire
— Exactly what to do on Saturday night and Sunday morning
— How to adjust naps and bedtime on the day the clocks spring forward
— When (and if) you should wake your child proactively on Sunday
— How to avoid short naps and early morning wakings after the time change
— How long it typically takes children to adjust
— Whether you can use daylight saving time to create a later morning wake time
— Special guidance for newborns who aren’t on a set schedule

Resources mentioned in this episode:
— Spring Time Change Cheat Sheet: Download Allison’s free printable guide to plug in your child’s schedule and follow a clear plan for the time change.
— Episode 227. Should Your Baby or Toddler Have a Set Morning Wake Time?

Give your child the gift of better sleep. Allison’s free, age-specific guides show you exactly how many hours of rest kids need to grow, learn, and thrive—no matter their age. Get your free copy now: 0-2 Years Old or 3 to 10 years old

From baby sleep to toddler sleep, daycare naps to sleep training—How Long ’Til Bedtime? is the podcast for parents who want practical, guilt-free sleep tips they can actually use.

Hosted by pediatric sleep coach Allison Egidi, each episode delivers real solutions for every stage—from navigating newborn sleep struggles and weaning night feedings to helping your 3-year-old fall asleep independently (and stay asleep!). Whether you’re trying to make sense of daycare sleep patterns, craving your evenings back, or simply need a working mom podcast to keep you grounded, you’re in the right place.

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Scroll down for a full transcript of this episode.

228. Spring Forward Sleep Tips: How to Handle Daylight Saving Time With Kids
Allison Egidi: Before we dive in today, I want to share a new project, challenge, endeavor that I’m taking on. I have agreed, I actually agreed last spring to coach my daughter’s middle school soccer team. And when this episode comes out, it will be the week of tryouts for the middle school soccer team.

And I am both excited and nervous. I played high school soccer and throughout college I coached soccer. I actually coached middle school boys soccer, which I should note I got transitioned to after I made too many girls cry when I tried to coach girls soccer. So they transitioned me to middle school boys soccer, which I coached for three years, the same team.

We had a great time and I ended up having a great relationship with all those parents. And then I coached U8 soccer for years for my girls and took on I think four or five different U8 soccer teams and had a blast doing that. And then went on hiatus because I felt that there were probably people more qualified than me to coach. And I thought maybe it might be beneficial for my kids to have different coach, but I’ve been tapped to coach again and I am excited and a little bit nervous about coaching my daughter again, although she said she wants me to coach. So I will keep you all posted on how that goes, but tryouts will be happening this week when you listen to it.

And as I’m recording this, I just had a meeting yesterday with the school to get all of our ducks in a row and to let them know how I plan to run the program, lots of things happening.

Okay, on to today’s episode. If daylight savings time makes you anxious every year, you are not alone. But the good news is that the springtime change is typically the easier one to manage. If however, you want to plan to ensure your child’s doesn’t get thrown off when the clock springs forward, then this episode is for you. Plus, I’ve created a Spring Time Change Cheat Sheet that you can download from the show notes and then it allows you to easily fill in your child’s sleep schedule and it maps out how to adjust their schedule to get them back on track quickly.

For the vast majority of families in the United States, the clocks will spring forward on Sunday, March 8th at 2 a.m., meaning we lose an hour overnight. So that 6 a.m. riser will technically be waking at 7 a.m. when you look at the clock Sunday morning. And while that sounds good in theory, if you don’t make some adjustments shortly after the time change, you may find yourself dealing with a sleep regression within a week or so.

To help you avoid any regressions, I’m going to walk you through exactly how to adjust your child’s sleep with minimal disruption so that by Monday morning you are back on track. I’ll also answer the most common question slash hope that many parents have. Can you use this time change to permanently shift your early riser to a later wake time? The strategies I’m going to walk you through today are going to work best for babies four months and older, toddlers, and young kiddos. If you have a baby who is under four months, I will share a little specific advice for you at the end.

Okay, first and most importantly, you don’t need to gradually prepare your child for the time change. You might see advice online suggesting that you shift your child’s bedtime earlier in small increments leading up to the time change, but I don’t recommend that type of approach. Our children’s sleep rhythms are primarily driven by natural light and their daily schedule. Think things like meals, daycare or school drop off and pickup and activities. Since their overall rhythm isn’t shifting before the time change, because all those things are happening at the normal time, adjusting bedtime and or their naps earlier than the time change, ahead of the time change can actually backfire causing short naps, early morning wakings and just general sleep disruption.

Instead, what I do recommend is that you just wait and make some small adjustments on Sunday, the day the time change actually happens, and then get back on track by Monday. So I want this to be quick. Here’s how to handle the transition with as little fuss as possible.

Saturday night, put your child to bed at their normal bedtime. Do not adjust their schedule on Saturday. Sunday morning, now let’s assume all of your clocks have updated to the new time automatically when you wake up on Sunday. You have two options. You can let your child just wake naturally. Or if your child has struggled to nap after previous spring time changes, you can go ahead and proactively wake them 15 to 30 minutes after their usual wake up time. So for example, if they typically wake up at 6:30, you’ll wake them at the new 7am, which would be the old 6am. Waking them isn’t necessarily required and a lot of kids, that’s not what I recommend. But if you have history with this and you know your child will struggle with their naps after this time change, then it can help make this transition easier. And that’s particularly true for those babies who are still taking two or three naps a day, less so for the one nap a day crew.

So let’s talk about step three, which is naps on Sunday. I want you to shift naps 30 minutes later than usual. For example, if nap times are typically nine, 12, and four, adjust them on Sunday, which is after we’ve shifted all the clocks, to 9:30, 12:30, and 4:30. Your child may still take a little longer to fall asleep, particularly if you hadn’t woken them earlier that morning. But even if that’s the case, I do not want you to let them sleep more than 30 minutes past their usual wake time for that nap. So for example, if your child typically wakes at 10:30 from their first nap, you will make sure that they are up by 11 on Sunday, no matter how long it took them to fall asleep.

That way you’re protecting their next nap start window.

Then on Sunday night, you’ll put your child down no more than 30 minutes later than usual. So if their typical bedtime is seven, you’ll put them down at 7:30. If however, they had a crummy nap day, you can absolutely put them down at 6:30 or seven. They can definitely go to bed earlier than 7:30 if the nap day was bumpy.

And then Monday arrives. Wake your child at their normal time and return to their regular schedule. By sticking to normal wake up times, I actually talked about this a little bit in last week’s episode. Actually, that’s what the whole episode was about. So if you’re curious about learning about consistent wake times, go back and listen to last week’s episode. But by sticking to the normal wake times, it’s going to align with their normal nap times and their normal meal times, and their body will sync up quickly to this new rhythm. If naps are shorter than usual on Monday, don’t hesitate to put your child to bed early Monday night to help them make up for some of that missed daytime sleep. And if naps go well, you’re going to go right back to your typical bedtime.

If this is a little confusing, be sure to grab my Spring Time Change Cheat Sheet and I will include a link in the show notes and then you can easily map out what you’re supposed to be doing with naps on Sunday. Most children are going to adjust in 24 to 48 hours when you anchor the day with that consistent wake time and you go right back to their typical meal times, nap times, and I’ll add lots of good daytime natural light exposure. That always helps if their bodies are feeling a little funky or off.

Now here’s the big question of the hour, maybe of the year, the big question of the year. Can you use this time change to push for a later morning wake time? If your child is an early riser, and you’re sitting here thinking since the fall time change, they’ve been waking up early. You might be tempted to use this time change to shift their wake time later. And while I definitely do see some children who are able to adjust that natural wake time by 15 to 30 minutes after the spring forward event, most kids are going to naturally shift back to their usual wake time within a week or two. And this is especially true for children who attend daycare or school because again, it comes back to the daily rhythm. And so their body is settling into the old rhythm. But that being said, there is no harm in trying to use the time change to get a later morning wake time.

If you want to try to keep that later morning wake time, I would do that by shifting nap start times and bedtime a bit later by 15 to 30 minutes. So nothing huge because that could really throw them off. But if they are successful and sleeping in a little bit later, then we want the whole rhythm to shift a little bit later. So the naps may be a little bit later which then allows them to get to a slightly later bedtime. But of course, you know, if they’re overtired, we got to go, don’t want them going to bed pushing their bedtime later. So they’re going to bed over tired. So be very careful about that. And if you notice that when you make this shift to try to have the schedule be a little bit later, that they’re suddenly taking shorter naps or getting less overall night sleep so their total amount of night sleep is decreasing then that may mean this later schedule is not ideal for their body and you may need to shift back to the schedule that was previously working well for them prior to the springtime change.

For those of you who have a newborn, a baby who is not yet mature enough to be on a set schedule, don’t overthink these time changes. Focus on those wake windows and slowly shift bedtime and the morning wake up time by maybe 15 minutes every couple of days until you’re back to your desired bedtime and morning wake time. But nothing needs to happen abruptly. And remember that when you’re trying to get an earlier bedtime, if that’s a goal you’re working on, it starts with the morning wake time and making sure that they’re not sleeping in lots of quote air quotes around the sleeping in too late because then they’re going to likely want to go to bed too late. So if we’re trying to get an earlier bedtime, this is another example where it starts with the morning wake time. So that’s where you can start to make a shift if you’re looking to do that. All right, some final thoughts here.

This time change doesn’t have to be stressful. Make a few adjustments on Sunday and ideally you’re back to your normal schedule on Monday. And remember, as always, if naps are a little off for a few days, an early bedtime is always your friend for off naps or off nights. If this episode helped you feel more confident about the time change, please share it with a friend or grab a screenshot and share it in your Instagram stories so that other parents can check it out and be sure to tag me.

As always, thanks for listening and thanks for sharing our content with other parents. Bye for now.