Daylight Saving Time shifts the clocks forward one hour and can mean an end to early risers (at least for a few days). Learn how to handle the upcoming change.
Daylight Saving Time starts on Sunday March 12, 2017 at 2:00 AM. Don’t forget to set your clocks FORWARD one hour before you go to bed on Saturday night. And as a head’s up, Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday November 5, 2017 at 2:00 AM.
Sleep Tips for Daylight Saving Time
If your child easily adjusts to new sleeping arrangements, travel or other interruptions to their sleep schedules, you may not even need to address the change in time. Keep in mind that overall they are loosing an hour of sleep so you might want to limit activities or allow for some additional quiet time during the day. If you are concerned about the possible impact to your child’s sleep schedule, consider the following:
MORNING
Let your child wake naturally. Don’t try to enforce or manipulate a schedule.
NAPS
If morning nap is usually 9:30 AM, adjust this to 10:00 AM for the 3 days after the time change. (This will feel like 9:00 AM to your baby and it may take them a little longer to fall asleep). Do the same for subsequent naps. On the fourth day, adjust to the new time.
BEDTIME
If your baby usually goes to bed at 7:00 PM, put your baby to bed at 7:30 PM for the first 3 days following the time change. (This will feel like 6:30 PM to your baby and it may take them a little longer to fall asleep.) On the 4th night adjust to the new time.
Exposing your child to sunlight when it’s time to be awake and dark conditions when it’s time to sleep will help them adjust.
Optimizing Bedroom Conditions for Sleep
With the onset of Spring, now is a great time to evaluate room conditions to ensure the best sleep possible. As the Spring and Summer months arrive, sunlight and singing birds could cause early morning wakings to return. Brighter conditions during the day could impact the quality and duration of daytime naps. And, let’s not forget about trying to convince your child that it’s time to go to bed Beefing up window coverings to create darker bedroom conditions is worth the time and investment. Looking at options to block out environmental noises is also an important consideration.
A word of caution about sound machines: Many commercially available sound machines are capable of producing noise outputs that exceed the suggested noise limited of 50 A-weight decibels (dB) for hospital nurseries. Exposure to sound machines with high noise output may put infants at risk of developing noise-induced hearing loss or abnormal development of the auditory system. If you are using a sound machine in your home, take some time to evaluate whether the noise level and duration of use is appropriate for your baby’s and your family’s needs.
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