Can you feel it? Spring is almost in the air, and with it comes Daylight Savings Time! This Sunday at 2:00AM our clocks will spring forward, meaning we lose an hour of sleep. The good news? The glorious sunshine will return in the afternoons and evenings signaling warmer weather and fun summer days ahead!
For babies and toddlers though, this can be a tough transition. I remember in the early days, it took our first born over a week to get used to the new time change, and boy was she grumpy in the mornings. As someone who used to call in sick to work if she received less than six-seven hours of sleep every night, sleep has always been my fatal flaw. Sleep deprivation caused me to experience postpartum anxiety disorder, and was the precipice to our sleep training success.
So that’s why I still follow a schedule, and even at ages four and seven, our kids go to bed as close to 7:30pm as possible! So how can we get our little ones prepared for the time change so we’re not up at 4:00 or 5:00am next week? Here are a few tips!
spring forward – daylight savings sleep tips
- Slowly move bedtime up by 5-10 minutes each night this week. By Saturday night the hope is your kids are used to going to be at least 3o minutes earlier!
- Make sure to get plenty of fresh air and exercise all week in the late afternoons and early evenings. Work to tire out our little ones so they want to go to sleep earlier.
- Wake your child a little bit earlier on Friday and Saturday morning.
- If your baby or toddler still naps, move up their nap time(s) on Saturday! Or if he/she only takes one nap, try skipping it on Saturday and put them to bed a full hour (at least!) earlier.
- Use a My Tot Clock to teach your child to stay in bed until it’s time to really wake up! This is the one thing I preach to all new parents to use, and start as soon as you move your child to a big kid bed to prevent them from getting in and out of their beds. It’s how I salvaged nap time for a full year with our littlest!
Don’t forget to spring forward this weekend, and enjoy the warmer weather ahead!
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If you liked this post, please read 10 Tips To Help Your Picky Eater!
This is honestly great advice and I am going to try some of this during this week now as I know the time change has indeed been an issue in the past here. Thanks Kristen! 🙂
OMG – totally loving this My Tot Clock… I’ve never heard of it and it’s brilliant!
It TOTALLY works too! Good luck this weekend!
Great tips! I hate losing that hour of sleep, but I love the lighter afternoons!!
Great advice – and I never think of this until it’s too late!
It’s my favorite “holiday” BUT.. as this article correctly discusses.. it’s not quite as fun when you have kids, is it?
Des is all up in arms anyway because he’s been sick and his napping schedule is all over the place, even though it is anyway!
Love the tips.
Right? So hard! Sorry he’s sick, hope things get better!
Great tips! We’ve used the My Tot Clock for years. Unfortunately, the 3-year-old figured out that she can turn her clock yellow just by pushing the button. That may be why she was in my room at 6am this morning instead of 6:45. :-/ As long as it’s not too rainy on Sunday I think we’ll definitely take the advice of wearing the kids out before bedtime!
Oh girl, mine knows how to do that too! There’s penalties in our house for that! LOL good luck with the time change this weekend!
Oh my gosh these images are adorable!! Arizona is the only state in the nation that never changes time. it is nice and maddening, because I am forever messed up trying to figure out what time it is for everyone else!