{"id":459339,"date":"2026-03-05T18:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459339\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T18:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:46:07","slug":"managing-young-childrens-daylight-saving-time-sleep-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459339\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing Young Children\u2019s Daylight Saving Time Sleep Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam\u2019s sister was now a toddler, providing the usual delights and challenges of another emerging personality<\/a> in the family. Unlike Sam, she was an angelic sleeper. She would announce her own \u201cbebtime,\u201d collect her beloved blankie, take any available grown-up\u2019s hand, and lead them to her room. As Daylight Saving Time bore down on the family, her grandmother reminded everyone that the little girl wasn\u2019t such an angelic sleeper last year when the time changed, so maybe they should think about managing the transition better this year.<\/p>\n

Most parents are surprised that this simple event can be so disruptive to a child\u2019s established sleep rhythms. <\/p>\n

Adequate sleep is vital to brain health, among other things, so there are established mechanisms in place to predispose children to fall asleep. Daylight Saving Time plays havoc with those very mechanisms. When adults travel east into a new time zone or two, we all feel that woozy brain thing. It comes from asking the body to manage another hour of sun with zero prep. That disrupts the established hormonally controlled circadian rhythms<\/a> of wakefulness first, then sleep. And that\u2019s in a \u201cmature\u201d brain.<\/p>\n

In the growing, unfinished brain of young children, it\u2019s a much bigger monkey wrench. That woozy brain presents as irritability, fussiness, night awakenings, and more. It feels to them like you decided all of a sudden to put them to bed an hour earlier for no good reason. True, it typically only lasts a few weeks, but it can be shortened and eased.<\/p>\n

Easing the Transition<\/p>\n

Prep always sounds good, but most of us don\u2019t have the bandwidth to shift bedtime, naps, and wake-up times in 15\u201320-minute doses a few days before. If you do, go for it. For the rest of us, the following steps can ease the transition enough to shorten the sleep machinery\u2019s adjustment time:<\/p>\n

Calming play before bedtime is always smart, but doubly so in this transition. Books and\/or soft music can work wonders.
\nAn hour or two before that calming play, try to dim the lighting. It\u2019s appreciated by those pre-sleep hormonal<\/a> preparations that need resetting.
\nNo screens of any kind for 60-90 minutes before sleep. The blue light turns the brain on, not off.
\nIf you haven\u2019t used a white noise machine before, this is a good time to plug one in. The early noises of the day (birds, trucks, etc.) can wake a child before they are ready, and we all know what that feels like.
\nGet them into a well-lit space as soon as they are up in the morning. Sunlight works wonders to help reboot those circadian rhythms. Brightly lit rooms work nicely, too.<\/p>\n

None of the above will work instantly. Consistency and patience will carry you through these days. They will also get you ready for the end of Daylight Saving Time, when you can reverse the whole process!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam\u2019s sister was now a toddler, providing the usual delights and challenges of another emerging personality in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-459339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}