Hi, this is Jessica Sawicki of Luli Sleep Consulting. Today on the Sleep Qs podcast we’re going to be talking about the end of daylight savings. So I know a lot of people hear those words and they start cringing. The time change really can shake up a lot of our kids’ schedules, but don’t worry, that’s what I’m here for.
That transition from Daylight Savings to not or fall back or when we changed that hour, back an hour is a little bit of a change, especially for our younger ones. The younger ones tend to have a little bit of a harder transition, even if it’s just an hour difference. The older ones, not so much, but that’s okay because I’m going to talk to you today about how you can approach this change.
So we’re really coming from the summer days where we had late nights, where the sun was going down a little bit later. And so it’s a little bit harder for us to transition to shorter days less sunlight. You have two ways to approach this change. The first is going “cold turkey” or the second is preparing a couple of weeks before.
“Cold turkey” approach
So let’s talk about the first approach, the “cold turkey.” The “cold turkey” is much like traveling. We’re just going to tackle the time change as of day one. So that morning we will wake up and just start slowly moving over all the feeding and sleeping schedules. Now, obviously that first day or two will be a little bit hard, even though again, it’s just one hour. It usually can take about 3 to 5 days. So don’t worry. Hang in there. This is a lot like traveling. When we travel and we get to a new location, even that one hour changes a little bit too much for us. So give your child’s body some time to adjust to this.
If you’re going to take the “cold turkey” approach and your child is under the age of 1, and you’re concerned that pushing your child a full hour to start on day one is a lot, you can just move the schedule over by 30 minutes on Sunday, and then the additional 30 minutes on Monday. So just break it down.
Preparing ahead of time
The second approach is preparing a couple of weeks before the actual time change. What that would look like is you spend about one to two weeks prior to the time change, slowly moving over your child’s schedule by 10 to 15 minutes every two days. So we move both the feeding and the sleeping schedule over.
What would that look like? If your child’s regular bedtime is 7:00 PM, you want to move it over so that bedtime will eventually be 8:00 PM. So you spend a couple of nights moving bedtime to 7:15, then to 7:30 and so on until you get to 8:00 PM. Now your child might be going to sleep a little bit later than the norm, but the idea is by the time the time change comes around, his bedtime is back to the regular 7:00 PM. So spend about one to two weeks slowly moving, being over your child’s schedule. And by schedule, I mean, feeding and sleeping by 10 to 15 minutes, every two days.
Now, what do you do that first day? So whether you take the “cold turkey” approach or the preparing a couple of weeks before, how do you handle this change that first day? Because even though we’re getting an extra hour of sleep, that day seems really long for all of us. But don’t worry cause if you’ve spent a couple of weeks adapting to the new change prior, your child, should be okay that first day.
Make the room dark
What are a few things that you can do to help with this process? The first would be blackout shades. So you don’t have to go out and purchase the fanciest blackout shades. I always say you can even buy black construction paper, or use garbage bags or plastic tablecloths. Anything, to block out the extra light that is coming in through the window shades in that early morning.
Try to hold off on starting the day until at least 6
The next thing I would suggest you doing is leaving your child in their sleep space to as close to the new 6:00 AM time. So it’s very hard when your child wakes up at 5/5:30 in the morning. And again, this is the old 6/6:30. They’re ready to start their day. The longer you keep your child in the dark room and not expose them to sunlight, the better it is for your child to start slowly adjusting to the new time.
Now with the younger ones, with the babies, it might be hard to keep them in their sleep space for so long, 30 minutes, 45 minutes. That’s okay. If you can slowly push the amount of time that they’re in their crib over every single day, that will help your child get used to the new time. What we’re talking about is adjusting their circadian rhythm, keeping them in a dark room until the new 6:00 AM or later will really help their bodies adjust to the new time.
Exposure to sunlight during the day
The other thing I suggest is exposure to sunlight. So while we talk about keeping them in their dark room until 6:00 AM, in the morning after breakfast, it is suggested to take them outside, to bring them to the window, to expose them to sunlight, to start adjusting their circadian rhythm as well. So keep them in the dark until at least 6:00 AM or later. And then after breakfast expose them to sunlight.
And the last thing I would suggest is those first couple of days, as your child is adjusting to the new change, maybe offer an extra catnap at the end of the day. That’s okay. A stroller or a car catnap can really help them bridge that awake window into bedtime and not getting them to be overtired.
So just to recap, don’t worry, you’ve got this. With the time change coming up, you have the option of addressing it “cold turkey” day of and giving it about 3 to 5 days to adjust or spending about a week or 2 before the time adjusting your child’s schedule. And remember blackout shades, exposure sunlight after breakfast and make a few adjustments to their schedule. And remember, give it 3 to 5 days and your child will be back to their regular schedule.
