Spring Forward! How to Navigate Daylight Savings Time this Spring

Spring Foward and Daylight Savings Time is fast approaching (YAY to the beautiful sun setting after 7 pm!!). This welcoming and lovely time of year can also cause some pangs of anxiety in parents with babies and toddlers, who wonder how their little ones will adjust to this time shift. 

It is true that our little ones have very strong internal clocks. Biologically, babies are incredibly sensitive to daylight when regulating their internal conception of time and the cycles of our days and nights.  All of our bodies regulate our production of melatonin (the sleepy hormone) according to the presence of light, and this regulation helps prepare our bodies for sleep at the right time. This is why it is very important to ensure that your kiddo’s sleep environment has the sunlight blocked out from all windows when it is time for sleep. 

With Daylight Savings time happening in 10 days, now is a good time to begin planning how you would like to manage through this shift. A baby who usually wakes at 7 am will now wake at 8 am, which is very often too late for the morning routines we all need to tackle before our workdays get underway.

In order to move your little one’s clock forward and to be in alignment with the new standard time, there are a few different ways you can go about it, outlined below. 

A Gradual Technique: A very effective technique you can use is to shift your child’s schedule ahead by 10 minutes every day for 5 days prior to the time change with day 6 being the new time day. This gradual shift also includes moving feeding times in addition to naps and wake/bedtimes by 10 minutes each day. By the time you reach the 6th day, they will be nice and settled with the new schedule. This can be effective because it allows for a natural transition to occur, and your little one will likely not even notice the adjustment because it was slow and steady over a course of days. 

Immediate Change: If you don’t have the time or capacity to move their schedule ahead gradually, you can make the time leap happen all at once on the date of the time change by either waking them up one hour earlier, and their daily schedule will follow based on that new wake up time. For those babies who have a very strong biological clock, they may not be ready for bed at the time you had planned that day. That is ok, stay consistent with bedtime according to their wake windows and this will regulate in a week or two and they should be in line with the new time.  

Semi-Gradual Technique: Another option that can take place over a two-day period is to shift their schedule by 30 minutes on the Saturday before the change and 30 more minutes on the Sunday of the official time change. This can be a little bit easier to manage rather than the straight leap all on one day, offering them a bit of transitional time over a shorter period. 

No matter which option you chose to implement, there are some key aspects of your child’s sleep to help them set them up for success during this transition: 

• Sleep Environment – ensure that their sleep environment is perfectly conducive to sleep and that no light is peeking through their windows. 

• Bedtime Routine – having a consistent bedtime routine that you do with them every single day signals to them that it is sleep time; maintaining this routine will be helpful as when they experience that routine, their body and mind already begin to relax into and understand what comes next – sleep! 

• Consistency – if the first few days and nights of this adjustment are bumpy, stay the course, they will adapt and be back into their rhythm before you know it. 
  

If you haven't already received a copy of my free sleep schedules for your children ages 3 months to 2 years, you can download your copy here. I highly recommend that you follow age-appropriate wake windows for your little one’s daytime sleep and bedtime to best ensure that their body is primed and ready for sleep with the appropriate amount of sleep pressure that will mount throughout the day. Managing their days appropriately will help curb any unnecessary early morning wakings or overnight wakings. 

Let’s celebrate this wonderful time of year full of growth, change and more light! Summer is just around the corner.