How to Adjust Baby’s Sleep Schedule for Daylight Savings

Are you worried about the time change coming up? Wondering how it will effect your child’s schedule? Totally baffled about how the time change switches things up for you and baby? Can’t remember if the sunsets later or the sunrises earlier? As we move towards the end of daylight saving time, my family starts to consider how we will adjust our children to the new schedule.

The extra hour of sleep will make the mornings lighter and the evenings darker earlier. This also means our children tend to wake up earlier and go to bed earlier. On the other side, the missing hour of sleep, tends to stay lighter later causing kids to want to stay up. Thus, we need to plan for this transition.

We all feel this transition. For adults, our body reacts more quickly to the change as we understand what is occurring and can mentally prepare. Additionally, adults grow accustom to these changes over the years. Yet experts still recommend making gradual adjustments. On the other hand, your little one has no concept of this change nor how it will affect them. Therefore, it is up to the family to prepare for your little one.

Popular Options for Daylight Saving Time Changes

There are a few ways to prepare for the daylight saving time changes. Some families prefer to make small changes before the time change occurs, while other families like to wait until after the time change occurs to make those changes. We actually prefer to do a little before and a little after while some other families just adjust their schedule to fit the new times. There really is no wrong way; as families we change with our children’s needs. Just know that children need time to make this change and it doesn’t happen overnight.

Begin Adjusting your Baby’s Sleep Schedule a Week Early

About the week before the time change occurs, begin to adjust your child’s bedtime and wake up time by increments of 10 – 15 minutes a day. Our children usually wake around 6am and go to bed around 7:30pm. In the fall, this means these times will now be 5am and 6:30pm. Yikes! These just don’t work for our schedule with sports and afterschool events. So, during the fall, let your kids stay up a little later each night to adjust for the time change. During the spring, we spring ahead. So instead of staying up later, you will actually want to start to put them to bed a little earlier each night in the spring.

By beginning the week before, you will have adjusted your child’s schedule before daylight saving time changes. By the time the clocks change, your child is back on their schedule. These little changes each day are less noticeable on your child’s body making the time change more manageable. Families should choose this method if you need your child to be on schedule for the few days after the time change.

We find that adjusting our children’s schedule the week before works well in the fall, when you want to let your kids stay up a little later each day. Why? Because once the change occurs, it will get dark about one hour earlier than the day before. Kids tend to want to go to bed when it’s dark out, so it can be difficult to keep them up the week after. Be sure to make sure this works well with your schedule.

Make Baby’s Sleep Schedule Adjustments the Week After

Instead of adjusting during the week before, you can wait until after the time change and begin the adjustment then. We plan for 3 nights and mornings of a early or late days depending on the season. In the fall, we plan for early mornings and early nights. We slowly extend the time that our children stay awake during the night until we are able to bring bedtime back to the time that best works for our family. In the spring, we plan for later mornings and later evenings. Then we slowly adjust to an earlier bed time routine until things are back to what works best for our family.

Either way it’s all about being flexible during this change and paying extra attention to your child’s needs. Additionally, know that this is temporary and with a little help, your child will return to a sleeping schedule soon. Families should choose this method if they need to continue their schedule up until the time change but have more flexibility afterwards.

We find that adjusting the week after is the most difficult for our family. This is because in the fall when you want your children to stay awake, it’s actually getting darker earlier. Then in the spring when you want your children to go to bed earlier, it starts to stay lighter later. This can make it a little more tricky, but still totally possible if your schedule requires it.

Split the Difference when Adjusting Baby’s Sleep Schedule

You can split the difference and start 2 – 3 days before the time change and continue adjustments 2 – 3 days after the time change. This is our preferred method. With this method, you might find that when the time changes, you are only about 30 minutes away from your usual schedule. Plus, this gives you the weekend before to begin to make the changes. Weekends are wonderful for making these changes for us because our children don’t tend to have late nights on the weekends but do have later events during the week. Therefore, weeknights can be a little tricky to get to bed earlier in the spring.

We actually prefer this method in the spring especially, since we can utilize the weekend to start to make the changes to an earlier bedtime. Then when the time springs forward, your kids actually go to bed at a later hour than the were before, so this tends to work better with our sports and after school activities. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, you will slowly put your kids to bed a little earlier to get back to your usual bedtime.

Change Your Own Routine for Daylight Saving Time

You can also do nothing to change their bedtime routine and instead change your routine to the new times. If your children wake up at 7am over the summer, after the fall daylight saving time ends, they will just wake up at 6am. Bed time would also move one hour earlier to support the time change. During the spring, the change would reverse and for children who usually wake at 6am, now they will wake at 7am. Then also push back bed time one hour as well to stay consistent.

This works well for families who aren’t on a set schedule and can vary their days around their kids. If you can all afford (or at least one parent) to wake up later or go to bed earlier depending on the season, then go for it. If timing isn’t so much your friend, then we suggest to try one of the methods above. One caution we have for this method is to be consist. Use this both in the spring and fall or your schedule will slowly creep later and later or your day will begin earlier and earlier.

How Do You Actually Adjust Baby’s Sleep Schedule?

We will now look at specific adjustments depending on the season. We discuss the actually adjustment needed in the fall versus the spring. Additionally, we dive into why these may be more difficult then you think and what to do to combat that.

Adjust Baby Sleep Schedule for Fall Back

You’ve finally got your child on a consistent sleep schedule and life has settled down. However, the first Sunday in November is quickly approaching. You know this hour time change is going to throw your little one’s schedule off and want to prepare. So what exactly should you do in the fall to help your little adjust to the new time change.

First, know that while the time change feels like a big feat, it’s might actually be bigger than that. In the fall, the amount of sunlight is getting shorter with each day that passes. The time change intensifies this as now it gets dark even earlier than before the change. We know children love to get up with the sun and go to bed with the sun, so trying to keep them away can be tricky when it’s pitch black dark outside. Yet, we want our children to stay up later so they aren’t going to bed at 6pm instead of 7pm.

Fall Back Daylight Saving Time Plan to Adjust Baby’s Sleep Schedule

This is why these 10 -15 minute incremental changes are so important. Making small adjustments feels way less overwhelming to your body and your rhythm than trying to tackle larger changes. Additionally, these changes support starting before the daylight saving time change so you can take advantage of the limited daylight as sunset slowly creeps earlier each day. This is why in the fall, we suggest beginning the week before the time change or at least the Friday before the time change.

Adjusting Baby’s Sleep Schedule for the Spring Forward

Baby has finally found her schedule and she’s sleeping well or at least better than before. Yet, the second Sunday in March is approaching. As we spring forward, this change tends to be harder for parents than kids since we actually lose that hour of sleep. On the other hand, most kids just sleep in letting their bodies slowly wake them. However, some kids are still up at the crack of dawn. Just know that you, as the parents, might have a more difficult time with the spring time change. Therefore, you may have far less patience and more difficulty helping your child to adjust as well.

With the spring time change, it now stays darker longer in the morning but their is more sunlight later into the evening. Days are also getting longer and longer as we slowly move towards summer. Yet, we want to ask our children to go to bed earlier since what was bed time on Saturday is now actually an hour later on Sunday. We need to move that time earlier by one hour while battling the ever lengthening sunlight. This can be incredibly hard for kids since they want to stay awake since the sun is still out.

Spring Ahead Daylight Saving Time Plan to Adjust Baby’s Sleep Schedule

The sun actually rises a little later after the daylight saving time change, yet we want our children to wake up earlier now that the time has sprung ahead. Children will naturally peek outside and see it is still dark, assuming they should still be sleeping. This is why we find it easier in the spring to begin before the daylight saving time change so that it is not quite so dark when your child wakes. Additionally, the sunset time hasn’t yet shifted, so we can slowly move bedtime up before the light at night increases. In the spring, we suggest beginning adjusting your child’s sleep schedule a few days before the time change.

Why Is Changing Bed Time So Important during Daylight Saving Time Changes?

There are many different times you can adjust in your child’s day, but we mostly focus on bedtime. This may seems strange because as an adult, we tend to focus on the time we need to wake up. However, with children we can control the time we set as bed time. We can’t control when they wake up; their body controls this. By slowly moving the time our children begin to rest, we also notice that their wake up time changes too! Wake up time really drives the rest of a young child’s day, since we are really looking for those sleep cues to determine nap times.

A Note About Naps when Adjusting Baby’s Sleep Schedule

These same principles work with adjust nap times as well. Not only will bedtime and wake up time change due to daylight saving time, but nap times will be adjusted based on when your child wakes up for the morning. So in the fall, plan for nap times an hour or so earlier than normal. While in the spring, nap times will be about an hour later than normal.

When adjusting nap times, keep these consistent with how wake up time is adjusted. Even if you put your child to bed 15 minutes early, if the baby wakes up an hour early, naps will generally still be an hour earlier than normal time. Nap times have more to due with time awake than they do with the time on the clock. As you slowly move bed time and wake up time is readjusted, nap times will come too. Just be patient and expect a week or two of time off schedule.

We’d Love for You to Connect with Us!

For families still trying to set your little ones schedule, check out our post on Making the Case for Sleep. It’s full of tips and tricks to help your little one develop good sleeping habits. Moreover, it focuses on helping parents a full night of rest. Of course, don’t miss out on our amazing tips for Tummy Time too. And if you dread the baby diaper changes, don’t miss our posts Making Diaper Changes fun for Baby and Standing Diaper Changes for Toddlers. Do you worry that your little one is meeting all their developmental milestones? Be sure to learn more about Early Intervention Services.

Learned a little something about daylight saving time? Found this post helpful? Created a reusable plan to tackle daylight saving time each fall and spring? Share this with other families who may need a little more support. Drop us a comment below and let us know. If you liked this post, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter below for more practical solutions to real life problems and a few freebies thrown in from time to time. Welcome to our family.

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.