Sleep Tips for Daylight Savings Time Move

It’s that time of the year again. Daylight Savings (“Spring Forward “) is Sunday morning and it’s time to move your clocks forward one hour.

This morning, I received a very timely and helpful email from my friends at Swellbeing on tips for helping your baby transition well during the daylight savings time adjustment. Swellbeing is a parenting resource center with offices in New York and Chicago. I met founder Janeen Hayward, when she was training under the fabulous Lisa Spiegel and Jean Kunhardt of the Soho Parenting Center.
Here’s her step-by-step plan:

1. Change the clocks to one hour ahead when you go to bed on Saturday night (ie. 10 pm becomes 11 pm. Yes, you lose one hour of sleep).

2. Wake your child(ren) up at the targeted wake up time in the morning (usually 11-12 hours from bedtime). Sometime between 6 -7 am is ideal.

3. Continue with your usual schedule using the new clock. If your child(ren) normally naps at 11:30 am, continue to put him down at 11:30 am. The hour was lost in his total nighttime sleep and you may notice slightly longer naps to make this up. That is normal and okay.

4. If your child seems a little fussy or cranky near the end of the day, feel free to put him down a little early for bed.