Daylight Saving Time, Springing Forward on March 10th, 2024.
Daylight saving time — the period from March to November in which we set our clocks one hour ahead — is approaching. Sunday, March 10th, our clocks will skip forward one hour.
As we wrote in The Washington Post, daylight saving time is an artificial time. Normal time (also called Standard time) is more in line with the solar day, and the rising and setting sun. Our brains are very attuned to the sun, and during standard time, we live our daily lives more in sync with our brain’s optimal sleep-wake rhythms. Daylight saving time creates a disharmony between our brain clocks and our wall clocks, not just when the time changes, but for the entire 8 months that it lasts. It leads to an increase in accidents and chronic health issues, which shows you how sensitive our internal clocks really are. Both scientists — for example the Sleep Research Society, and doctors — see the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine — agree, we should get rid of daylight saving and stay on standard time all year long, for our mental and physical well being.
For now, the time change is a reality (regardless of how we feel about it!) and it helps to be ready before it arrives.
Here are some tips to help your baby or child adjust to Daylight Saving Time:
While you sleep on Saturday night, March 9th, the clocks move forward one hour. You technically lose one hour of sleep on Saturday night. It helps to adjust your family gradually before the time change, and the younger the child or baby, the more sensitive they are likely to be, so the more gradually you’ll want to change.
SHIFT YOUR CHILD TO DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME GRADUALLY
Once Sunday rolls around, what used to be 6:00 p.m. will now be 7:00 p.m., so your baby will be less sleepy at bedtime. In anticipation, adjust sleep times a little earlier each day leading up to March 10th.
STEPS FOR SHIFTING YOUR BABY GRADUALLY:
Move your baby’s bedtime and nap times 15 minutes earlier each day for 4 days leading up to the time change. So if your baby’s bedtime is 7:00pm, on March 6th, put her to sleep at 6:45pm. Allow her to wake (or gently wake her) the next morning 15 minutes earlier. Adjust nap times earlier as well, and put her to sleep at 6:30pm that night.
You can adjust more gradually by starting 6 days before the change (March 4th) and moving sleep times by 10 minutes. This helps your baby’s body adjust — more closely mimicking minutes of change in day length at a time, the way we do as the seasons change.
If you’ve been wanting your baby to go to bed and wake up an hour later, you’re in luck. You will be able to shift your baby immediately to the new time. It will still be very important to pay attention to blocking out early morning light and keeping bedtime and naptime routines consistent.
If your baby’s schedule is off in a direction where the time change will make it even worse (you want her to go to bed an hour earlier), adjust gradually to the new time and then continue until you’ve reached the desired bedtime. Continue the adjustment, even after the time change, until your baby’s schedule is where you want it.
If you can, make a plan to stay in on Saturday night, March 9th because otherwise it’s hard to stick to this earlier adjustment.
Older kids and teens can often jump to new time, but it helps a lot to keep these ideas in mind:
Go to bed on time on Friday the 8th and Saturday the 9th in order to make the adjustment easier.
Limit sleeping in too much on Saturday and Sunday morning, so that falling asleep on Sunday night will be easier.
Get morning sun on Sunday as early as possible to help the brain adjust.
Try to reduce exposure to light in the evenings, turning down interior home lights and encouraging kids to read, play, or even watch TV from a distance, instead of video games or hand held devices.
For babies and little kids, remember that the most important predictor of good sleep, overall, is going into their cribs and beds awake and having good self-soothing and independent sleep skills. If you need help with this, you can learn The Happy Sleeper methods for babies 0-4 months (for setting your newborn on the right path), 4-24 months, and 2-6 years in our online sleep classes.