On Saturday November 6th before you go to bed, don't forget to set your clocks back by 1 hour. YES!!!! we all get to gain a glorious extra hour of sleep or an extra hour to hang out in bed...... BUT.... if you are the parent of a little one, maybe not!
A change of routine in your little ones sleep schedule can be nerve wracking. For a lot of parents, the fall back time change is especially daunting as 5am becomes 4am (which is now not even early, but still the middle of the night).
Here are two approaches for you to use as preventative measures. 1. COLD TURKEY
Keep your child up on the first night (up to one hour later than their normal bedtime) and in the morning if they wake early maintain your normal routine by the clock. Hold off from getting them up until their normal wake time if you can. You may have to be a little strict about it by putting them back to bed. This is an easier approach with older children than with babies. 2. GRADUAL
For small babies, under 9 months of age: Beginning on Thursday, you can create a small offset of around 15 minutes throughout the day. For example, starting Thursday, put your baby to bed at 7.15pm instead of 7pm. Everyday following (Friday and Saturday), do the same thing, so when the clocks go back an hour, you are back to 7pm on real time.
Example Schedule for 7pm bedtime:
Thursday: 7:15pm bedtime
Friday: 7:30 pm bedtime
Saturday: 7:45pm bedtime
Sunday: 7pm bedtime new time which is 8pm old time.
For babies over 9 months of age to 18 months: You can use the same strategy but starting on the Friday and doing an offset of 20 minutes, and again on Saturday.
Example Schedule for 7pm bedtime:
Friday- 7:20 pm bedtime
Saturday- 7:40pm bedtime
Sunday- 7pm bedtime new time (8pm old time).
For toddlers of 18 months and on: You can do it on the Saturday, offsetting by 30 minutes only.
Things to note:
It is only an hour and even if you do not make any advance changes, over the course of 1-2 days everything will line back up on real time on its own- you will just have to deal with some early mornings until this happens though.
Although I am using the bedtime as an example of the offsets, you would start this process in the morning and set off the whole day.
If you do decide work on realtime this Sunday, consider offsetting nap time by allowing them to be longer than average. You could also add in an extra nap if your little one would take it, and do a slightly later bedtime than normal on real time, getting them back on track the next day.
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