The clocks go forward on Sunday, 25th March and some parents may be concerned that their child's sleep routine will be all over the place.
With this in mind, we spoke to Lucy Wolfe, Paediatric Sleep Expert and Baby Elegance brand ambassador, who not only gave us some great tips, but also reassured us about the change.
"Spring forward doesn't have huge implications on the child," Lucy said. "Generally things go back to normal within a week or two."
However, to ensure that things run smoothly at home, Lucy offers the following advice, although she does encourage parents to read their kids.
In fact, if your little one adjusts to change easily there is no real need to do anything but if they aren't, she advises mums and dads start moving things forward 15 minutes earlier from the Wednesday.
So what advice does she have for parents:
1. Do your best to prepare your child for this transition by ensuring that they are well rested in the run up to DST. Pay specific attention to day time sleep and fill this need as much as possible.
2. Make sure that you have blackout blinds and a sleep-friendly environment to help with going to sleep and to avoid unnecessary early rising.
3. Consider moving your child’s schedule earlier by 15 minutes every day from the Wednesday before the time change. Adjust meals and naps times and of course their morning wake-time accordingly so that by Sunday you will already be on the new time on the clock.
4. Alternatively you could do nothing until the day of the change. On this day you should make sure you wake your child by 7:30am “new time” that morning and then follow your daily routine, addressing meals, naps and bedtime as you always do but offering a level of flexibility, possibly splitting the difference between the old time and the new time.
This means that your child is potentially going to bed 30 minutes to one hour earlier than normal; they may struggle a little as their inner-clock may resist this, but within 3 - 7 days their system will adjust and your regular timetable will run just fine.
5. Bear in mind that you do not really want the time change to achieve anything, except that by the end of the week you are on the same time schedule that you have always been on prior to the spring forward. Attempting to the get time change to adjust bedtime later or create a later wake time, rarely has a positive result, often resulting in night-time activity and decreased nap durations by day.
6. Remember to wake by 7.30am “new time” each day so that the internal body clock is not interrupted disrupting your nap and bedtime rhythm.
7. Treat any disruptions with consistency so that you don’t create any long term sleep difficulties during this transition.
