How to make daylight savings time easier on small children

Parents to children know that something strange happens to them on Daylight Savings Time. Specifically in the fall when folks in the United States are coming off Daylight Savings Time, ie, losing an hour, young children may behave differently. Differently, waking up at odd times, being crabby or otherwise behaving unlike the angels that they normally are.

Our oldest child has always been a great sleeper, going to sleep at the same time and waking up 11 or 12 hours later. However, on the Daylight Savings Time switchover, when we fell back an hour, after he had just turned 1, he woke up at 3:00, full bore to start the day.

For us going on Daylight Savings Time, going forward an hour; has always been much easier for the children. The next fall, when our oldest turned 2 he still woke up slightly early and was unusually cranky the entire day.

It was after that we came up with the grand idea of moving up bedtime by 15 minutes a day for the four days prior to the Saturday night when Daylight Savings Time ends. Traveling from Beijing to Moscow on the train I went through seven time zones in six days. I was a wreck at the end of the trip, alternating between wide awake and falling asleep while I walk.

By shaving 15 minutes off each day gradually we’ll make bedtime easier on the day that we finally do gain that hour back.

It turns out that our idea wasn’t that original because WebMD also encourages people to gradually step back the clock. From WebMD, “Move up your bedtime and wake time, little by little, in the days leading up to daylight saving time, so you’re already adjusted when the time changes. For instance, shave 10 minutes off in the six nights before the time change, or 15 minutes per night in the four nights before daylight saving time starts. “Go to bed earlier and get up earlier … to train your nervous system,” says Nicholas Rummo, MD, director of the Center for Sleep at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mt. Kisco, N.Y. Rummo recommends the same strategy for children. “Get them to bed a little earlier the week before” daylight saving time, Rummo says.”

Well dang, I guess our thought wasn’t an original idea, but at least it works. The downside is that you’re waking up quite early on Saturday; but it should slow step your nervous system into flawlessly accepting the time change.