On March 8th, those of us lucky enough to live somewhere the time changes, we will all lose an hour of sleep! A lot of kids won’t have a problem adjusting to the new time, but for the littles that have always struggled with sleep, I would suggest adjusting their clock gradually the next week so that they can ease into it and not get thrown off in just one night. Below are 2 possibilities of adjusting to Daylight Savings!
For those parents and children that are blessed with sleeping well and aren’t sensitive to change, their internal clock will adjust itself (just like ours does), so not preparing for losing that hour of sleep and letting them adjust naturally will probably mean that they will be back on the right track in just a day or two.
For those kids that have parents that worked hard for their meticulous schedule because they are not naturally good sleepers and are extremely sensitive to change, my best advice is to move their entire schedule back in 15-minute increments. You can do a 15-minute adjustment every day, or every 2 days, depending on how sensitive they are to sleep changes. So just by waking them up a little earlier each day, will allow for you to adjust their naps, meals, and bedtimes appropriately until March 8th. For Instance, the following schedule is an example for a child on 1 nap.
| Current Schedule | March 4th | March 5th | March 6th | March 7th | March 8th |
| 7:00am Wake-Time | 6:45am Wake | 6:30am Wake | 6:15am Wake | 6:00am Wake | 7:00am Wake |
| 1:00pm Nap | 12:45pm Nap | 12:30pm Nap | 12:15pm Nap | 12:00pm Nap | 1:00pm Nap |
| 7:00pm Bedtime | 6:45pm Bed | 6:30pm Bed | 6:15pm Bed | 6:00pm Bed | 7:00pm Bed |
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me! 623-824-5427 or krissy@monkeyroosleep.com
