As the leaves fall and the temperature begins to drop the season of autumn arrives! During the autumn season on the last Sunday in October the clocks change. This can bring a bit of anxiety around bedtime. So, I’m here to provide some tips to help make the transition as smooth as possible! The autumn clock change means that the clocks go back an hour. So, let’s looks at the different ages ranges of how best to approach this change.
Helping Older Children Adjust to the Clock Change
For children that no longer have a nap this makes the change a little bit easier. What you need to do is ‘split the difference’ which means splitting the time they usually go to bed and the ‘new’ clock. An example of this would be if your child’s usual bedtime is 8pm then aim on the day the clocks change to put them into bed at 7.30pm. If you continue these timings for 3 nights. Some children may find this tricky so you could consider moving the time 15 minutes every couple of days instead.
If you have a gro clock (or similar product) for your child you can move the sunrise 30 minutes earlier than usual to help reset their body clock. This makes it not feel like such a long time for them to stay in bed with the change!
Helping Toddlers and Babies Adjust to the Clock Change
Toddlers and babies over 13 months tend to need one nap a day. Therefore, it is also important at this age range to ‘split the difference’ with their nap and bedtime. If their nap is around 12.30pm then move this to 12pm for a few days after the clock change. Then back to 12.30pm again. Again, the approach for bedtime is the same as described above for the older children.
Babies are the trickiest when it comes to clock changes as they are most sensitive to change with timings. It is important that you are consistent with the same wake windows and their normal routine.
If their normal wake up time is 7am and they are now tending to wake at 6am then you want to leave them for an extra 10 minutes than usual. As their wake-up time begins to naturally get later, keep adding an extra 10 minutes until they reach their normal wake up time.
If your baby is struggling with this change then you may need to consider pushing their awake windows slightly to enable slightly later timings. However, remember that you shouldn’t keep them up really late as this doesn’t lead to a lie! Just an overtired baby!
Newborns and the clock change
The good news for parents of newborns, who are likely running on little sleep, is that there’s nothing you need to do! Newborns typically don’t follow a set routine, so it’s best to just let them be!
It’s not all bad news! For some families, the darker mornings and evenings can actually help little ones sleep better. If you have any further questions on the autumn clock change, , please do get in touch.
