Spring Time – Daffodils, Bluebells and Clock Changes!

I felt a real sense of Spring today – amazing blue skies, bright yellow daffodils waving in the wind, and my first client of this year enquiring how best to cope with the impending clock change! British Summer Time begins on Sunday 27th March and we move the clocks forward one hour at 1am. So how will this effect your little one and how can you help them to adjust to the time difference. Once the clocks have changed, if you put them to bed at their new bedtime, they will be going to bed wide awake and struggling to get to sleep for an hour or longer. And in the morning, when you try to wake them at the new wake up time, they will be unwilling to wake up and be feeling very tired and grumpy!

By making gradual changes over the next few weeks, it is possible to minimise the disruption to their sleep. Try putting your baby or child to sleep 15 minutes earlier every three or four nights, gradually building up to them going to bed a whole hour earlier. You will also need to wake them up 15 minutes earlier each morning to compensate for the change to their bedtime and to help their body clock adjust.

This is also an excellent time to consider investing in some black out blinds for your baby or child’s bedroom, to assist with the lighter mornings and evenings. Research has shown that a trigger for the release of Melatonin, the sleep inducing hormone, is dim light, therefore it is a good idea to use black out blinds and dim the lights at the beginning of your baby or child’s bedtime routine.

However, it is not just bedtimes and waking times that need to be altered, but also nap times (if applicable) and meal times, as these are also affected by the clock changes. I find it is often helpful to create a chart or “timetable”, as during a busy day, it is often difficult to remember all the changes that need to be made, and when they need to be made! Here is an example of how to change a typical routine for a 9 month old baby, starting 9 days before the clocks change.

Daylight is really beneficial for establishing your little one’s circadian rhythms – lots of bright daylight early in the morning, and fresh air and outside playtime each afternoon will also help them to adjust to the time change. Let’s hope for lots of bright sunny mornings and warm afternoons, to help us all get out and about, and make the most of Spring!

If you would like any further help or assistance with your little ones sleep, please do contact me, either by completing my enquiry form or phone 07974 705693 / 01793 780485.

Photos courtesy of Stuart Miles / kangshutters / Rob Wiltshire freedigitalphotos.net