Spring is here — though it’s not only nature springing forward — the clocks are too!!

I know that thought strikes fear into many parents and the anxiety of how to adapt is very real.

Never fear — The Magic Sleep Fairy is here and these are my ‘Top Tips’ for coping with the hour change:

• The general rule to adapt to the change, is the same when travelling through time zones — adopt to the local / new time as soon as possible!
• If your baby is already sleeping through the night and achieving a full 12 hour stretch from 7pm to 7am, then just set your alarm for the new 7am, get them up, (which will be an hour less to what they are used to) and carry on your day following your usual times and schedule.

Nb: contrary to popular parenting belief most babies are capable of and actually need to be sleeping 11 to 12 hours through the night by as early as 8 weeks of age and more typically around 10 to 12 weeks. See my Baby book to understand your baby’s natural sleep requirements and how to implement a schedule which promotes this.

• Any negative effect of the hour change on your baby should soon disappear and though may be more tired that first day, within a couple of days all should be back to normal and the body clock will have reset itself.
• The most important tool you have to ensure an easy transition is that your baby’s digestive system is already following its natural pattern in accordance with night/day, light/dark, sun/moon and re-fueling during the day and sleeping throughout the night.
• By switching mealtimes to the new time during the day it will create an adjustment in the whole system and sleep patterns will follow suit and fall into the new time quite easily.
• If your baby is an early riser the clock moving forward an hour can work in your favour as what was 6am, will of course now be 7am. Even if they’ve woken earlier than this get baby up at the new 7am and stick to the daily schedule on the new time. Quite often, this small reset seems to help and actually resolves the early waking issue without you doing much more as baby now sleeps into 7am and achieves nearer the 12 hour night with ease.
• Please do remember though that if the previous early waking was due to any kind of dietary issue, acid reflux problem or milk/food intolerance or allergy then your little one will still wake early and will continue to do so until you address and manage the underlying, root cause. You will find loads more detailed information on these issues in my books.
• If your baby is 4 months plus and still waking for night feeds, not settling to sleep easily or just seemingly unable to stay asleep for any length of time during the night, then you might choose to capitalize on the hour change and slightly shorter night, to implement the reassurance sleep training technique as detailed in my Baby book. Read the book, be prepared and start at bedtime on Saturday night. Nearly all parents who adopt this approach state afterwards that, ‘doing it’ was nowhere near as bad as they imagined it was going to be. (Just ensure that any underlying digestive issue/reflux problem has been fully managed before implementing any form of sleep training.)
• If you have a toddler or child then you might choose to use the hour-change opportunity and put a ‘sleep clock’ in place. These clocks that ‘go to sleep’ at bedtime, show a blue star during the night and have a yellow sun appearing to show its morning, are really useful. However, you must implement the nighttime boundaries alongside using the clock and there’s loads of information in my Toddler book on how to do this. Following my advice they’re really useful and your child quickly learns to stay in bed and only gets out of bed when the sun 🌞 comes up and use of the clock helps to easily transition through the hour change.