Can you believe it!? Spring is here.
And with it comes daylight savings change. Woohoo!
More light in the evening means time for BBQs, evening walks, and playing in the backyard after dinner.
✨✨✨ Sunday 29th September 2024 our clocks go forward by one hour ✨✨✨
This means if we don’t go to bed an hour early on Saturday night we’ll lose an hour of precious sleep. And we know that won’t feel good come Monday morning. We can help ourselves and our little people adjust to this coming clock change by adjusting our routines around sleep.
If you follow any sort of routine or have time-based commitments in your week, you’ll likely need to make some adjustments to your baby’s sleep times to help you keep on top of your to-do list when the clocks change.
I’m here to help you do this easily. Read on!
Our circadian rhythm, aka body clock, is set by 3 variables or 𝙯𝙚𝙞𝙩𝙜𝙚𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙨 (highschool biology anyone!?). These are LIGHT, FOOD, and SOCIAL INTERACTION. This basically means that when we expose our eyes to light, when we eat a meal, and when we interact with our families will all have an impact on when our bodies want to sleep.
So, with the start of daylight savings coming up we can either slowly adjust these 3 things in the lead up to the clocks changing, or we can slowly do it afterwards.
If we avoid changing when we see light, eat, and interact with people our normal 7am wake up will turn into an 8am wake up after daylight savings time begins. Or maybe more importantly, your baby’s 7pm bedtime becomes 8pm… eating away into your precious “me time” in the evening.
So, let’s nut this out together! First you need to decide if you want to be proactive or reactive.
⏰Proactive: You can prepare your baby for daylight savings by changing their routine little by little over the week leading up to Sunday’s clock change… or
⏰ Reactive: You can wait till after the change in clocks and do the same changes reactively to get onto the new time.
Here's an example of how to move onto the new time before the clocks change:
You can begin on the Monday before daylight savings starts. We call this day 1.
On day 1 start your little one’s wake, eat, and nap times 15minutes earlier. So a 7am wake up is shifted to 6.45am, a morning nap is shifted from 9.30am to 9.15am etc. Carry this on throughout the whole day. Placing bedtime 15 min earlier as well.
On day 2 you’ll copy what you aimed to do on day 1.
On day 3 shift again by 15 minutes. The 6.45am wake up can now be pulled back to 6.30am and the 9.15am nap started at 9am etc. Day 4 will be the same.
On day 5 you'll pull the day back by another 15 minutes. Wake up is now 6.15am and nap is 8.45am etc.
If you started day 1 on the Monday, by day 7 the clocks have changed and you'll do the final 15min shift, so the 6.15am wake gets moved to what would have been 6am but now the clocks are changed forward 1hr and its now 7am again.
Essentially you can do this whole process over a longer period if you wish and hang out at each new stage for a little longer. This is totally up to you. I don’t recommend going quicker than what I laid out above. Giving a couple of days at each new timing will help shift your baby’s circadian rhythm along the easiest.
Here is a quick guide to refer to when you're in the middle of an Spring time shift and you're getting muddled.
Spring daylight savings change can be a really great time to finally work on moving that early morning wake of 5am for good! This will turn into 6am wake up after the clocks change without you having to do anything.
But please don’t just leave it at that. The same triggers that caused the EMW will likely still be there and if you don’t address them the new 6am wake will slowly shift back to 5am. If you need more help figuring this out, go and purchase my super affordable Early Morning Wakes Masterclass here and get prepared to ditch the EMW for good!
Needing a supportive community to help you feel less alone and overwhelmed in this journey of motherhood? My Peacey Sleep Club (PSC) is here to help you become confident and unruffled by the ever-changing sleep needs of your baby so you can thrive in your motherhood.
The PSC gives you age appropriate sleep advice right when you need it and options to suit your family, monthly access to a sleep expert and guest speakers, a library of resources, and support from a community of like-minded Mums who love their sleep too!
Learn more about the Peacey Sleep Club here
💜 Laura
hello@peaceysleep.co.nz
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