Sticking to a schedule, ensuring a smooth wake up call, ensuring a sleep-inducing environment, engaging in tiring activities through the day, adjusting the time before daylight saving time, judging the kind of attention your child needs, and consulting a sleep expert or a parent coach are some of the tips to help baby adjust to daylight savings time.
As the fall approaches, new parents are subject to the trepidation that is adjusting the sleep schedule of their children to the officially scheduled time change of Daylight Savings Time in the western part of the world. Sleep schedules of children may be extremely erratic, and putting babies to sleep is already a chore. But with the time change this fall, the challenge is about to become a lot tougher. It might be easy for adults to adjust to the difference of an hour in our daily routine, but the interior clocks in children are not used to this change. It might take a while for you baby to get used to the time change so that you can get back to your normal schedule.
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What is Daylight Savings Time?
Daylight Saving is observed in the USA, Canada, Greenland and the countries of Europe in the northern hemisphere, and only a few countries in the southern hemisphere of the Earth. During the summer months in these countries, the sun stays up for a longer period of time during the day and sunset occurs later than the rest of the year. But in winter, the sun rises earlier. So the people are expected to manually adjust the clocks so that they can make most of their day. Daylight Saving refers to the manual setting of the clock on a stipulated day in the year, to maximize the use of daylight and increase productivity in the summer months.
In most of the countries that use Daylight Saving Time, it is a rule rather than a norm. The constitution of many countries have laws and acts in place that have mandates regarding the time change and the stipulated dates are declared every year. Make sure to check your calendar if you are traveling to any of these nations, so that you can prepare for travel from earlier on.
If you are traveling with a child, it is customary to take the necessary precautions to make sure that the time change does not adversely affect your little one. The ways in which you can do that are discussing below.
When does the time change in the fall?
Most nations have a legal rule on when the country should gear up for Daylight Saving. The time change may vary from year to year, and if you are wondering when does the time change, you should remember that it varies. The 2017-2018 Daylight Saving period ended on April 1st and the 2018-2019 is to begin on Sunday, October 7th. Make sure to adjust your clocks for the Daylight Saving time for the year.
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7 Way to Help Baby Adjust to Daylight Savings Time
If undertaken well before the trip to a country that observes Daylight Saving, adjusting your child’s routine should not be as difficult as it sounds-
Stick to a schedule
This is an important part about getting your children acquainted with the time change. Make sure that you have a tight schedule that your child is well adjusted to before beginning the process of adjustment. The child should be well aware of the routine and the sequence of your schedule for the acquaintance to work efficiently.
Judge the kind of attention your child needs
No matter what method you adopt, the nature of your child is something that you should always take into account. If your child is a good sleeper and is fine with any change in the schedule, the process of getting him or her adjusted to the time change will be relatively easy.
Read More: When Do Babies Sleep Through the Night?
Adjust the time before daylight saving time
One of the fundamental aspects of daylight saving- make sure that you positively adjust every clock in your house to the official daylight saving mandate. With many things to think about, this menial task may escape our notice, but that will make things much more complicated than they have to be.
Ensure a sleep-inducing environment
The most important part about adjusting to the time change is basically shifting the normal sleep time by an hour. Make sure to get your child in bed an hour earlier than his usual bed time, at least two weeks before the stipulated time change. In order to make your child sleep earlier than usual, you need to create an environment that discourages other activities in your child and encourages her or him to get into bed. A dark room, some sleep music may come in handy with this regard.
Engage in tiring activities through the day
Through the two weeks that you try and get your child adjusted to the time change, make sure to engage your child in tiring activities out of doors during the day time. Being tired from the day’s play, your child would be more open to bedtime being an hour early, allowing you to effectively adjust his routine for daylight saving.
Read More: 5 Ways to Improve Sleep Quality After the Birth of a Newborn
Ensure a smooth wake up call
Just like you induce your child to sleep, in the two weeks of the adjustment period, make sure to wake up your child an hour early as well. A smooth wake up call is desirable, so that the child may feel like he or she woke up on his or her own accord rather than being woken up.
Consult a sleep expert or a parent coach
Following these steps is bound to make things work. But if you feel like you would like some extra help, do not hesitate to contact a professional to help your child adjust to the time change.
Getting your child to adjust to daylight saving may seem difficult at first, but as he or she grows up, it becomes a part of the norm. With the toddlers, the struggle gets easier with each year and the process itself is less complicated than it actually is.
Read More: 7 Foods that can Help you and your new Baby to Sleep
References
https://www.pampers.com/en-us/pregnancy/trending-now/article/expert-advice-adjusting-babys-sleep-for-daylight-savings
https://www.fitpregnancy.com/baby/baby-care/steps-to-prepare-your-sleeping-baby-for-daylight-savings-time
