Americans can snag an additional hour in bed this weekend as clocks “fall back” for daylight savings time, but parents of little ones won’t be so lucky.
Fortunately, pediatric sleep consultant Amanda (@dreamologybyamanda_) guarantees there are strategies to get your kids to get up later this Sunday.
And bonus points if meaning catching a couple of more ZZZs — or getting some extra quiet time within the morning — for mom and pop.
While you would possibly not feel that single hour difference much as an adult, children might be more greatly affected by a shift of their snooze schedule.
“Young children need more sleep and don’t tolerate sleep deprivation in addition to adults,” Daniel Lewin, PhD, former associate director of sleep medicine at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., told Parents last 12 months. “The lack of only one hour can really affect a toddler’s attention span, appetite, and overall mood.”
Though it’s too late to implement Amanda’s first tip to push a child’s wakeup time forward 10 minutes every single day for every week, her second option is available in slightly below the wire.
“The weekend leading up to sunlight savings time, you’ll want to lengthen your wake window five to quarter-hour,” she told her TikTok followers. “The tricky thing about this feature is, you don’t need your child to turn out to be overtired, so in case your child becomes overtired easily, this won’t be the perfect option for you.”
So tonight, kiddos can go to bed about quarter-hour later, with an aim of getting them get away from bed quarter-hour afterward Saturday. That night, bedtime gets pushed back one other quarter-hour, with a later wakeup on Sunday — and by Monday morning, they’ll hopefully be up just in time for varsity or daycare.
Dr. Lewin agrees that a gradual adjustment like this “just isn’t as much a shock to the system.”
Finally, Amanda’s third option is to do nothing in any respect. She noted that some kids is perhaps high-quality with the shift — and if not, they’ll catch up inside a couple of days.
Implementing bedtime routine this weekend — and each night — will even make the adjustment easier on everyone, in response to Dr. Mario Bialostozky, M.D., associate chief quality officer at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego.
“Routine is absolutely key,” she told Blue Shield of California. “Children thrive on routines and consistency. They do best after they go to bed at the identical time each day, including the weekends.”
Dimming lights and turning of screens at the least a half hour before bedtime are all expert-approved ways to get snooze-ready.
“Each kids and adults need a relaxing bedtime routine to quiet their brains to advertise higher sleep,” added Dr. Teri J. Brown, M.D., medical director at Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan.
