On March 14th, those of us lucky enough to live somewhere the time changes, we will all lose an hour of sleep (Eye Roll, am I right?)!! 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 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 (or 30 minutes) every day. So just by waking them up a little earlier each day, will allow for you to adjust their naps, meals, and bedtimes appropriately until the desired bedtime has been reached. For Instance, the following schedule is an example for a child on 1 nap.
(Since I’m late to posting this, I did the 30-minute increments instead of the 15- minutes in the table below) But for those more sensitive to sleep, feel free to view the 2nd table and just keep doing the normal 15-minute increments after the time change and you’ll be at your desired wake-time in no-time)
| Current Schedule | March 13th | March 14th |
| 7:00am Wake-Time | 6:30am Wake | 7:00am Wake (old 6am so you’ll still have to wake them at 7am) |
| 1:00pm Nap | 12:30pm Nap | 1:00pm Nap |
| 7:00pm Bedtime | 6:30pm Bed | 7:00pm Bed |
| Current Schedule | March 13th | March 14th | March 15th | March 16th |
| 7:00am Wake-Time | 6:45am Wake | 7:30am Wake (old 6:30am) | 7:15am Wake (old 6:15am) | 7:00am Wake (old 6am) |
| 1:00pm Nap | 12:45pm Nap | 1:30pm Nap | 1:15pm Nap | 1:00pm Nap |
| 7:00pm Bedtime | 6:45pm Bed | 7:30pm Bed | 7:15pm Bed | 7:00pm Bed |
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me! 623-824-5427 or krissy@monkeyroosleep.com
