
Just a few easy steps will help your child adjust to the time change.
This is the weekend we set our clocks ahead one hour. If you’re wondering the best ways to help your child adjust to what might feel like an earlier bedtime, or a more difficult time waking in the morning, here are some simple suggestions. With these tips, you can ease the transition and reduce the likelihood of seeing your toddler wide awake at bedtime and sleeping later and later into the day in the morning.
Isis Sleep Consultants Meg Casano & Erin Evans offer this step-by-step plan for spring time changes:
Most of these suggestions pertain to the child over 5 months old. Light is a significant factor in resetting circadian rhythm but is less relevant for newborns or infants under 3 – 4 months while sleep patterns are still being consolidated. Learn more about newborn sleep.
1. As we approach daylight savings time, keep the lights dim in the evening for an hour before your child’s bedtime. Keep the lights down for your child while you do your pre-sleep routine and darkness for sleep. Keep things low key, spend some time engaged in indoor quiet play. For example, if you start your bedtime routine at 7pm and its lights out at 7:30, keep the lights dim from 6:00, then dimness to start bedtime routine and lights out at 7:15pm. Move bedtime earlier by 15 minutes a night until you have moved bedtime earlier by one hour. Plan to complete this cycle by the night after we set our clocks back.
2. The next morning, if your child is still asleep when it is time to get up, try to wake him up naturally by opening the curtains and making a little noise. Light exposure in the morning will help reinforce the new wake time.
3. Repeat steps one and two for the next few nights so that your child’s bedtime makes the 1 hour change. Of course, not all of us HAVE one extra hour in the evening to sit in dim light and so if this is not a practical solution for your family at least try to avoid outdoor light before bed and keep activity low while you are approaching bedtime. This light change is significant in helping your child’s circadian rhythm readjust, and will help prevent your child from being unable to sleep at bedtime once we set our clocks forward.
4. Expect up to three additional days (after consistency using lightness, dark, and 15-minute increments at night) for these light and dark reinforcements to take complete effect.
5. You may also adjust naptime back in 15 min increments on the same days you are adjusting bedtime. You may continue to have your meals on “clock time” if you like.
Reminder: A continuous white noise machine and room darkening shades will help!
For a child with a too-early wake time:
The night after we set our clocks forward, the “new” 5am will feel like your child’s 6am so if you have a child who’s had an ultra early wake time (ex: 5am) and you’ve been trying to make it later but didn’t know how, here is your opportunity!  You can simply keep your child’s bedtime the same relative to the new time (so if bedtime was 6pm after the time change it will jump to 7pm). Remember to use darkness later in the morning to help your child sleep in (keep that white noise machine on) and keep the household dim and quiet until you’d like your child to be awake for the day.
Best of luck with this transition!
Erin & Meghan Isis Sleep ConsultantsIf you need more support in fixing those early wake ups using lightness, dark, and auditory cues, implementing a pre-sleep routine, finding appropriate bedtime, morning wake up and napping solutions, or manage frequent wakings,  we’re here to help. Learn more about our Sleep Support Program.




