Baby Schedule & Daylight Savings | Spring Ahead: March 13, 2022

Daylight savings is coming. But, fret not! Your sleep and your baby’s sleep will be just fine. I’m going to break down the exact changes you need to make to your baby’s schedule one week before the clock changes. Trust my process, and let’s do it together.

Daylight savings means spring is near! Woohoo! I’m excited. I know a lot of people hate it but I’m all for longer days and shorter nights, and all the fun things we can do in the summer. So, as we are springing ahead, we are also going to prepare ahead of time and adjust your baby’s schedule.

You have two options here. Do something or do nothing. Now, you wouldn’t have landed on this post if you had already chosen to do nothing, right? Sure, if your child is not affected by change, i.e., traveling, teething sickness, and they are just happy-go-lucky, then there’s nothing for you to worry about. If their behavior doesn’t change even if their sleep is a little bit off, then you could probably do nothing and simply adjust their schedule after the clock moves.

However, if you have a child who is highly sensitive, and you have to really calculate their wake windows or their sleep becomes a hot mess, then you definitely want to take this a little bit slower and plan ahead for daylight savings. This article, therefore, is aimed at those children who are slow to warm up and who need a little bit more time to adjust to changes.

How to Change Your Baby’s Schedule Before Daylight Saving

This process starts a week before daylight savings happen. So that, on the day when the clock changes, your child would already be back on regular time. I have tried to simplify this as much as I can and make this as easy as possible. So, stick with me.

Step 1) Download the PDF chart here.

Step 2) What Time Does Your Baby Wake Up?

So, let’s just say that your child regularly wakes up at 7:00am, as an example. Once daylight saving happens, it’s going be 8 o’clock. What we are going to do is to wake your child up at 6:00am the week beforehand, so that on daylight saving day, your child will wake up at 7am again. I hope this makes sense. And yes, this means that we are moving your child’s entire schedule one-hour earlier, this includes their feeding and naps.

Step 3) Grab Your Calendar

Using this year as an example, Daylight Saving Day is on the 13^th March 2022. So then, on March 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th, wake your child up at 6:30am instead of 7. So, instead of jumping into one hour, we are only moving your child’s schedule forward for 30 minutes to start with. Then, on the 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th, wake your child up at 6:00am. So that, when daylight savings happened, your baby will wake up at 7am again.

This method allows your sensitive child to adjust this change for a couple of days. They need time to change their circadian rhythm. They have to change their internal clocks by one hour, and some babies need a lot more time to do that. We are helping them to adjust over the course of seven days in half-hour increments.

If you want to take it even slower, you can try in 15-minute increments. Click this link here to learn more. But chances are that you really don’t have to do it in 15-minute increments unless your child is really highly sensitive to change.

Step 4) Use Blackout Window Covers

You 100% need to use blackout window covers. You cannot have an ounce of light coming into your child’s room because days are getting longer and it’s going to be brighter earlier. So, do yourself a favor, and blackout that room before the time change happens.

Step 5) Stay Consistent

Stay consistent with your new schedule. In fact, this schedule should not be to different from your pre-daylight-saving schedule. All we did was a little adjustment period so that your baby can carry on “as usual” after the clock changes.

Another thing that you need to keep in mind is that, even though we’ve prepared ahead, your baby may still need another two to three weeks to adjust to these changes properly. They are changing their entire schedule by a full hour, and their internal clock needs time to catch up. It is common for you to experience some sleep issues such as early morning wake-ups, bedtime battles, or refused naps.

That being said, I still believe that a half-hour buffer will not make or break your baby’s day, which is why my method is in 30-minute increments. But if you’re noticing a huge impact, then slow it down, and take it 15 minutes at a time. Yes, this process will be longer, but that’s okay.

Step 6) Go Outside

The best thing you can do is get your child outside and expose them to daylight. They need vitamin D to help them produce melatonin at bedtime. So, the more sunshine your child gets, the quicker they are going to adapt and change their internal clock.

I hope this is helpful! Feel free to share this process with your friends who are stressed out about daylight savings. And don’t forget to let me know in the comments how this schedule worked for you. Meanwhile, if you need any other tips on baby sleep, check out my free baby sleep guide here.