Managing Your Baby's Sleep When The Clocks Go Back

This month the clocks go back by an hour and if you’ve got a baby who’s already an early waker, the thought of them getting up at 6am instead of 7am [or worse] could already be worrying you.

You might have worked very hard to get your baby sleeping through the night but the fact is that many babies are naturally early risers and for this group, the time change can be a little bit of a challenge.

Rest assured that any disruption caused by the clocks going back will be just temporary and even if you do nothing at all to change your baby’s sleep routine, they will naturally over a few days adapt to the new time.
If you do want to take some steps towards minimising the disruption to your baby’s sleep, here are some tips:

Babies:

• Two weeks before the time change, start to put your baby to bed 10 minutes later than usual, increasing by 10 minutes every other night until they are going to sleep about an hour later than their normal bed time.
• Don’t worry if at first they still wake at the same time in the morning; it often takes a few days for a new sleep pattern to establish itself.
• Keep to the same napping frequency but not necessarily the same times. i.e if your child usually wakes at 7am and naps at 10am and 2pm, put them down again around 3 hours after having woken up in the morning and after waking from the naps.
• The clocks go back in the early hours of Sunday morning. During the day before, allow your baby to have an energetic day which includes lots of fresh air and exercise.
• Parents should go to bed early and one of you be prepared to get up if your child is ready to start the day at 6am.
• Don’t force your baby to remain in the cot if they have had their usual amount of sleep and are looking wide awake.
• If in the run up to the time change, you’ve been putting your baby to bed towards 8pm, you will be able to easily put them to bed at 7pm new time. 

Toddlers: and older:

• With toddlers and nursery aged children, it may be possible to explain the time change. If they have a Gro clock, this will make things much easier for them to understand.
• Put them to bed a little later than usual the night of the time change and set the sun on the clock to come up for half an hour later than they would normally wake up. i.e. if they usually wake at 7am, set the clock to “wake up” at 6.30am new time.
• If they wake up at their usual time [which will be 6am] you should encourage them to remain in bed until the sun comes up. Don’t be too ambitious here; any longer than half an hour to wait could become a bit demoralising for your child.
• When they remain in their bed or cot until the sun appears, they should be warmly praised.
• The following day [Sunday] have another active day and then put them to bed at the new earlier bed time.
• This time set the clock for 7am new time.

Don’t allow the clocks going back to let you slip into “bad” habits. Bringing your baby into bed with you or giving a dawn milk feed to encourage your baby back to sleep may work in the short term but long term may lead to sleeping problems.

On the whole, winter time is good for babies’ sleep. The difference in light levels between day and night encourage the production of sleep hormones, as well as offering clear visual sleep clues.
Being outside during the day, even when it’s cold, is really beneficial for babies’ sleep, so do get outside and enjoy the beautiful autumn colours. And as the nights draw in, it is a lovely time for you and your baby to snuggle up and get cosy.

Clocks go back 2am on Sunday 30^th October.

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