How to Make Daylight Savings Work For You and Baby

In the Fall, I start getting Daylight Savings questions up to a month prior, but not in the Spring. Ironically, before you have kids, you look forward to Daylight Savings in the Fall because we gain an hour, but in reality, it only means your baby will wake an hour earlier (gasp!). Every March, here in the USA, Daylight Savings starts, and we “Spring Forward.” This means most of us are looking forward to our children sleeping in, even though we lose an hour. Unfortunately, it also means your baby’s sleep can suffer.

Last year, I wrote a Daylight Savings tips article on WorkingMother.com, so I won’t rehash those in detail here. Instead, this article will be about how you can ensure your early riser can stay a later riser and you can “ride the wave” of the time change. If you want your baby to adjust back to her normal schedule, the tips in the article should help. If you have to adjust your baby back to her normal schedule such as waking her for daycare, be prepared for a little crankiness and tiredness, but it should only be a few days until she adjusts, just like a trip from Chicago to New York.

Springing Forward When Baby is Waking too Early

The #1 thing to keep in mind about Daylight Savings for your baby who is waking too early? Your baby is losing an hour of her day. This is important to understand because it can already be tough to find the right nap or bedtime. With the time change, it can be even trickier. Because our internal clocks are “set” to be asleep or awake at certain times, following the clock as closely as you can on the day after the time change can help immensely.

This means you must change your whole routine, not just sleep times. There are many things that cue your baby into a schedule or routine such as the sunrise, mealtimes, playtime, etc. So, if your baby wakes at 6 a.m. and her nap is usually at 8 a.m., on the day of the time change, put her down at 9 a.m. and so on. If you are trying to encourage your baby to wake at 6 a.m. rather than 5 a.m., you will be able to keep her on the “later” schedule as long as your baby is napping well and you’re keeping her from being overtired.

Over-tiredness at bedtime is the #1 reason for waking too early. You can’t expect a baby to go to bed at 5 p.m. and she sleep much past 5 a.m., either. However, if you’re a night owl and are trying to get your baby to wake at 8 a.m. rather than 7 a.m., you may not be as successful with taking advantage of the time change. This is because the sunlight or unnatural light helps to “set” our internal clocks to be awake. One of the primary goals of Daylight Savings is to extend our daytime hours, which automatically leads to a later bedtime in the summer.

Tips for Sleeping Later after Daylight Savings

Here are some sleep tips for your baby to continue to sleep later after daylight savings:

Change your daytime routines to be an hour later, not just sleep.
Ensure your baby naps at least one hour for each nap. (Except for the third nap of the day for babies taking three naps.)
Make sure you set bedtime to be the new time. HOWEVER, if your bedtime was too late before, make it earlier than the new clock time (which is still later than the old).
If you don’t already have them, try room-darkening blinds/curtains.
Ensure your baby is eating enough during the day.

Some babies and people, in general, are natural early risers. (There’s a genetic link.) Only some can successfully sleep late. However, most can learn to sleep past the crack of dawn. I remember when my son was around 8-9 months old, he was waking in the 5 o’clock hour and it was killing me! So, I worked with him and successfully pushed his routines later until he was waking between 6:30 and 7 a.m. IF you find yourself back to an early rising a week or two after the time changes and your baby is older than 6-8 months old, consider shifting his schedule.