British Summer Time Starts on Sunday 28th March…..meaning good bye to the long nights for a few months….yay!
In my opinion, if you have kids, this is the better of the two time changes as early risers will wake up at a normal time – even if it does only last a few days.
This is the time of year when it stays darker in the morning and stays lighter at night, but in a month or two you will start to see the sunrise earlier in the morning. This creates its own set of problems when it comes to messing up your sleep!
Remember that although your child might wake up later in the morning, they might be less enthusiastic about going to bed earlier at night!
With this in mind, I wanted to share my top tips for helping your child to adjust:
1. Know your child
- Is he/she sensitive to a small sleep window, or does he/she go with the flow?
- Do you find that your child is grumpy if a nap is missed, and you feel the effects for several days? Or can they get back on track pretty well?
If you would classify your child as ‘sleep sensitive’, then you may want to think about a plan to adjust to BST. If you have the go with the flow type, then you can go with the flow.
2. Let them naturally adjust – AKA do nothing
Sleep is regulated by our circadian rhythm (or body clock), which in turn is regulated by darkness and light.
So, even if you don’t do anything, your little one should be back to their normal routine after around a week.
3. Use blackout blinds
Regardless of how you transition to BST, use light to help you adjust to your normal routine, and block light out to eliminate those early wake-ups.
Blackout blinds are perfect for this.
4. BEFORE the clocks change:
Over the course of the week preceding the clocks changing, you can start steadily shifting your child’s schedule earlier by 15 minutes every 3 days in preparation.
Example: Normal Naptime at 9am would now be at 845am, 3 days later 830am and so on….by end of the week this means if bedtime is normally 7pm it will now be around 6pm until the clocks spring forward (and it becomes 7pm again and you’re all set to go!)
OR……..
5. AFTER clocks change: Steadily move nap time back
The same principle applies. So you’d slowly adjust your child back to their routine over the course of a week or so. Put your child down for their nap 15 mins earlier every 3 days and your child will soon be adjusted to their usual schedule.
Example: For the first nap of the day, your child would go down at 9:45am instead of 10am (if their nap usually starts at 9am pre clocks changing) and so on every few days.
If you’ve been feeling a little anxious about the time changes, please try not to worry. No matter what happens, your child will always eventually adjust.
If you’d like more support, just get in touch!
