Posts Tagged ‘time change’

Happy National Sleep Awareness Week! Oh, you don’t celebrate this holiday? Well, technically, neither do I.

I make it a point all year round to stress the importance healthy sleep habits for our families. I can bet that because you’re a parent who has come to this site, that you have learned (maybe the hard way) just how sleep deprivation takes a toll on your mind, body, and soul, and how your baby’s development flourishes when he’s getting enough rest. In a sleep-deprived state you aren’t as alert, probably more cranky, less energetic to play with your kids, and probably angry more often. You might even be depressed. It might even affect your marriage. You might even feel like you don’t like your baby some days. I hear all this and more, and I feel for each and every one of you!

The National Sleep Foundation is a big promoter of National Sleep Awareness Week and has released their “Sleep in America” poll results today. They studied four different ethnic groups and their sleep habits and attitudes towards sleep. Interestingly enough, in all four groups, only 4 in 10 said they get a good night sleep every night or almost every night. I suspect that if they studied parents, this number would be even lower! Another interesting result of the poll is that most adults believe their sleep issues will go away on their own over time. I would say this is true a lot of time about parents and their child’s sleep issues: that you believe (or hope) the issues will go away over time. Oh how I wish that was always the case! You can read more 2010 Sleep and Ethnicity Poll Results here.

National Sleep Awareness Week ends with a bang with Daylight Savings starting this weekend (if you are in the U.S.). We “Spring Forward” and lose one precious hour of our day. I know some of you might be jumping for joy when your 5 a.m. riser will now be waking past 6 a.m., but I also know some of you know that schedule changes always seem to set you and your family back. If you are worried about the time change or want to know what to expect from your baby or toddler this summer when it stays light later, please review your Spring Forward with Child Sleep Tips on WorkingMother.com, written by yours truly.

But, wait! There’s more!

I can’t let this week go by without giving you an opportunity to get more sleep for you and your family, so in honor of “Spring Forward” and National Sleep Awareness Week, I’m doing a quick and easy giveaway. Comment with a brief description of your sleep story by Sunday, March 14th at 11:59 p.m. below for a chance to win:

1. A one-week unlimited e-mail consultation package (Value $79)
2. A five-email consultation package (Value $49.95)
3. A copy of Mastering Naps & Schedules – (Value $24) (Giving away two!)
4. A copy of Help Your Child Sleep, a Step by Step Guide – (Value $27) (Giving away two!)
5. A 3-month membership to the Members Area, which includes access to all e-Books, case studies, tele-seminars, and much more! (Value $24) (Giving away two!)

I will be reading your story and trying to find the most apropos family for each prize, so I can really make a difference in your lives. Good luck and happy sleeping!

The end of daylight savings is upon us when we will change our clocks back one hour. In Europe, the clocks change this weekend and for the United States (most of them), they will change on November 1st. For most people this means a baby, toddler, or child who wakes up a dreaded one hour earlier. This is especially painful when your child is already getting up at the crack of dawn! Most people don’t even get why we even have to change the clocks (Note: Nowadays, it’s to save energy).

You have three options when it comes to your child’s sleep and the end of the daylight savings. This year, I’ve had the pleasure to summarize your options on WorkingMother.com in Time Change Sleeping Tips. If you’d like more detail about how to handle daylight savings, please head over to MomCentral.com and read Saving Your Baby’s Sleep During the Time Change. Please take a moment to read over your options and feel free to post questions in the comments below.

How will you handle your child’s sleep when the time changes?

So, how did your time change go? Have your babies adjusted yet? I, the sleep obsessed, messed up my own children’s schedule on the day after the time change. D’oh! Here’s what happened…

As expected, my kids woke up “one hour early” with the time change. Not a surprise because their internal clock doesn’t know what our digital clock says, right? So, we went about our day and my goal was to put the boys to bed 1/2 hour later than their internal clock and 1/2 hour early on the digital clock. So, I decide to go out to an early 5pm dinner with a friend, her husband and their baby boy to make it easier for the kids to stay awake being out and about. The kids did GREAT at dinner…all 3 of them. It was great! But, the one problem was we waited 10 minutes for a table and the server was sloooow, so we ended up not getting home until after 7pm! D’oh! So, in actuality my sons both went to bed WAAAAY later than I intended by almost an hour. *sigh*

Both boys seem to talk to each other and were up at 5:50 yesterday morning, which was 20 minutes later than the day before, and at 6:10 this morning, so they are going in the right direction. It does take a few days for most kids. My younger son made up for the late bedtime on Sunday with a 50 minute morning nap and 3 hour afternoon nap yesterday and was asleep in bed by 6:45 last night. My eldest was asleep by 7:30 (doesn’t nap anymore but almost fell asleep during his 1 hour rest-time, which for us is a no-no because it makes him stay up past 9 or 10 p.m. at night). I’m expecting a post 6:15 a.m. waking tomorrow, so we should be back on track.

All this to show you that even someone who is obsessed with sleep can make mistakes sometimes and things do just happen. I know a lot of parents out there really kick themselves and I feel for them when they contact me and say things like “I know I messed up” and I tell them it’s really okay. Everything WILL be okay. If something goes wrong, just make changes for the next time. Now, in the past, my mistake (you know because going out to dinner is so risky when you have a challenging sleeper LOL) would have been HUGE because one slip up with my eldest when he was a baby would set us back about a week or more, but now that he’s older, things are sooo much easier and my youngest is definitely more adaptable. Phew! My eldest son is having some behavior issues, so it still does affect him somewhat, still.

The highlight of my day, yesterday, was I received an update from one of my clients whom I’ve been helping for over 2 weeks because her daughter had been getting up at 6 a.m. and she did not want the time change to bump them back to 5 a.m. I was happy to hear that her daughter happily slept until 6:30 a.m., the new time, Sunday. I was ecstatic as shifting schedules is not always easy and she worked really hard for the past 2 weeks to make it happen. I’m so happy for her!

If your child is still having trouble adjusting to the new schedule, make sure you encourage them to stay in bed and in the dark, as the light stimulating our eyes cues us when it’s time to get up and it’s easy to get into a rut of waking at 5 a.m. every day. Hang in there!

How is the time change going for you?