How to help your child adjust to DST and season changes.
Updated 2024
Have you noticed your little one is having difficulty adjusting to seasonal changes like longer hours of sunlight? As an adult, the extra hours of sunlight feel like a blessing and make us happier to release some of the winter blues. But for your younger family members who are used to a sleep schedule and have specific sleep needs, those changes can wreak havoc on their natural cycles. The good news is that we can help them adjust with just a little bit of understanding for what their mind and body is experiencing.
Daylight Saving Time is always a hot topic due to sleep disruption, but especially now. If you haven’t heard, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 (S. 623) recently passed the Senate, which means it would be on the way to the House and then signed by President Biden to become law. The bill is proposed to take a year to be put into effect to allow major transportation providers and airlines to adjust, but if it’s signed, there would be no more falling back. In the meantime, until the bill is officially signed, Daylight Saving Time is still a part of our lives, and a major factor of sleep challenges for both adults and children.
Rachel Mitchell, founder of My Sweet Sleeper, is a mother to seven and knows these journeys into sleep cycles from work and family. “Every year DST creeps up on me and even though I know everyone will adjust, it always ends up being a difficult transition for our entire family,” she says.
Rachel also recently spoke with Dr. Lara Wittine, Medical Director of Sleep Medicine at AdventHealth Tampa, to get her take on sleep pattern disruption and the changing seasons. “It is a good idea to take preventative action before Daylight Saving Time by preparing in advance. The transition from autumn into spring tends to be harder on everyone,” she says, “as opposed to falling back due to our natural circadian rhythms. Our rhythms tend to be a little longer than our scheduled 24-hour periods, and this makes it harder for us to shorten our day. This is what happens when we lose the extra hour of sleep when we spring forward.”
And, if it’s difficult for adults who have an understanding of time and routine, the process is even more difficult for children to get their normal and crucial sleep. Based on this reality, we put together five ways you can help your little ones adjust to time and season changes without losing sleep yourself!
1. Create a relaxing bedtime routine and keep your efforts consistent.
If you already prepared your child in advance for the time change you might notice there has been little affect on their sleep. But if not, you may find that your child is struggling, not only to adjust to the new time on the clock, but also to the change in sunlight. If this sounds familiar, creating a relaxing bedtime routine and remaining consistent with that routine is key.
Think about ways that you can alter your bedtime routine as we start getting into warmer weather and more sunlight. This could mean increasing time outside in the early evening (ideally before dinner), adding in more time to wind down, and adding in a bath each night to help your child prepare for this transition period into rest. Something to consider as we enter the Spring/Summer season is that your child might be much more active and thus may need more time to calm down in the evenings, which is why a routine is so important.
2. Use black-out curtains.
Because there is more sunlight in the evening, blackout shades can help to encourage melatonin production if your child’s bedtime is on the earlier side. And when you’re doing your bedtime routine, pull the curtains a little more closed bit by bit with each step. This will give the room a gradual light change much like the sun setting, and help kick in your child’s natural sleep hormones. Sometimes pulling the curtains at once can feel too harsh and confuse your little one’s system.
The sun doesn’t set in seconds, after all! What’s important is that you’re doing everything you can to support their wind-down period, helping their body to naturally slow down and feel tired. Trying to push them into sleep or expecting them to understand the clock has changed, simply won’t work!
3. Increase your evening activity.
This is the perfect time to take a longer walk, play one more round of your favorite outdoor game, or run an extra lap around the neighborhood. Trust us, your child will not complain about a little extra time playing! A little more exercise is important, since children tend to be more active at night during the time change.
Put that energy to good use and wear them out! If you don’t get those excess energy stores released, you’re likely to have a bigger bedtime fight. High emotions or frustration keep your child awake longer and going to sleep while upset also lowers their quality of sleep. Just ensure your child still has the wind down time they need before bed.
4. Adjust your morning routine!
We talk frequently about adjusting bedtimes, but Dr. Wittine reminded us of how important it is to also adjust the morning wakeup! Just like going to bed ten to fifteen minutes earlier prior to DST, start waking up your children fifteen minutes earlier as well in preparation for the time change. While it may not sound like much of a difference, doing so day by day will get your ready to wake up through the time change and get their sleep rhythms running regularly.
A good sleep cycle isn’t just about when you go to sleep, but also when (and how) you wake up! If your little ones need help waking up in the morning, you can crack the black out shades, play a soft but energetic morning song, have breakfast ready so they wake up with the smell of their favorite morning food, or have fun activities planned for the day that need them to be awake by a certain time.
5. Don’t forget your teenagers.
We talk so much about babies and infants when we talk sleep, but your teenager is just as important! They need a good amount of sleep to process their body growing and the mental energy it takes to learn new information at school and in the world. While we tend to think teenagers are lazy when they’re sleeping, they’re not! But we have to be careful with their routines as well.
“During seasonal transitions, teenagers tend to lose an average of two hours and forty-five minutes of sleep during that transition period.. Whereas most adults will adjust to time changes in less than a week, a teenager can take up to three weeks,” Wittine says. “Studies have shown their psycho-vigilant motor testing, or how fast or active people respond to queues, that for a week to two weeks following that transition time, high schoolers have a deficit. During this time they’re learning to drive, taking entrance exams, and more. Teachers also need to plan accordingly and give teenagers a bit of a break.”
Imagine for yourself what it would feel like to have three weeks of jetlag, or three weeks of feeling like your sleep is disrupted. You can help your teenager by limiting screen time starting two hours before bedtime. This helps their natural melatonin to kick in and feelings of sleepiness to begin. You can also assure a good night’s sleep by not letting them sleep in too late on the weekends. While the thought of waking them up on a Saturday or Sunday might terrify you, in the long run, they will sleep better during the week and therefore, transition better to seasonal changes.
If you’re having trouble with the transition into spring, you’re not alone. The good news is that with the change in seasons also means warmer weather is on the horizon which we are definitely excited about!
We would like to give a special thank you to Dr. Lara Wittine for letting us speak with her. You can learn more about Dr. Wittine here.
If these suggestions aren’t helping or if you need additional assistance you can book a consultation or read through our other blogs, like these recommendations:
Six simple tips for limiting screen time with your child
These are the alarming dangers of sleep deprivation
Here’s why consistent bedtimes are more important than you think
How much sleep do you really need?