Start Preparing Your Kids for Daylight Saving Time Now
When we move our clocks forward an hour next Sunday, March 14th, we will remain feeling overwhelmed and perhaps a little cranky, as Monday morning comes even earlier than we would like. Adults usually don’t like to get a little sleep deprived, but we drink twice as much coffee and manage. Young children, on the other hand, are less likely to germinate and more likely to get rid of wasting, getting nervous exhaustion during a 9 a.m. zoom. This is why you should start loosening the transition now, while you still have a week for their bodies to be ready to waste an hour.
Gradually adjust your bedtime and wake-up times.
As an adult, you can probably handle the loss of one hour at a time, but children will be better off if their sleep and wake times are extended by a few days. Here’s how Dr. Daniel Levine, assistant director of sleep medicine at the National Children’s Health System in Washington DC, suggests Parents.com do it:
If your child goes to bed at 8:00 pm, about four days before the time change, put him to bed at 7:45 pm, then at 7:30 pm, and so on, until he goes to bed as close to 7:00 pm as possible. If possible, wake him up early. “Taking this step does not shock the system as much as when you suddenly expect your child to fall asleep an hour earlier after changing the time,” says Dr. Levin. “If it’s too difficult to get your child to bed early, which often happens with older children, then just focus on speeding up the wake-up time a little instead.”
If you like, you can do this even more gradually by lengthening the time by 15 minutes and leaving it there for two days instead of one before lengthening the time again.
Focus on your routine
Babies feel best when they have and they follow a consistent sleep schedule, so if you’ve relaxed a little on this issue, now is the time to tighten it up again. Some combination of brushing their teeth, bathing, cuddling, reading books, and singing songs before turning off the lights, with constant repetition, will help signal their mind and body that it’s time to finish. Beginning tonight, protect their sleep patterns at all costs.
Control the light
Darkness promotes sleep, and light promotes wakefulness. So if you haven’t already, buy darker shades to darken their bedroom if it’s necessary for sleep or if it gets light when it’s bedtime. To help them wake up in the morning, pull back the curtains to let nature take its toll.
(If you don’t have tinted sunglasses, I also pinned a dark lightweight blanket; it works great.)
Try wearing them the day before
If you haven’t been able to gradually reschedule their sleep times, your mission on March 14 is to wear them out completely. This is not a day for extra screen time and relaxation. It’s a day of bubble wrap classics, obstacle courses and all the Go Noodle you can handle. There is no shame in putting them on purposefully so you can go to bed as early as possible.
Buckle in
If all else fails, and you haven’t been able to gradually adjust their sleep schedule, and the timing was just set to knock your baby down and ruin his overall well-being, just wait a couple of days. They can be very irritable for a while (perhaps as long as a week), but at least you know why they eventually regulate.
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