Prepare Your Child to Spring Forward for Daylight Saving Time

Posted by doularama | Filed under News, Parenting, Recommendations

On march 13th,  most of us in the United States and in about 150 other countries will be setting our clocks ahead one hour. Some of us won’t and will therefore be running an hour late on Sunday and some of us may not even realize it until Monday!   It doesn’t make much sense that we do this because it doesn’t actually gain us or save us any daylight. The earth will rotate and revolve just the same whether we call the time one or two.

For years I have noticed that my children start adjusting their waking time all on their own and usually, when Daylight Saving Time begins or ends, they are largely unaffected. My children are unusually well-rested, however, and are early to bed, early to rise. I imagine that many children probably have a harder time with the sudden time change, so here I offer my suggestions for an easier transition for the whole family and anyone else who might spend time with your children. Afterall, studies have shown that a great number of “behavior problems” are actually due to a lack of sleep.
First you need to know when you need to change your clocks. Even if all of your electronic devices will automatically be updated and you don’t own a watch or analog clock, you should be prepared this year to “lose” an hour on March 13th.  The magic shift is supposed to happen at 2am, but I always cheat the system by changing my clocks at about 9pm the night before.  I always make up for it by cheating myself by a few hours at the end of DST.

Especially if your child needs to go to school on Monday morning, you should try to gradually ease him or her into the time change.  Start about four days in advance by making bedtime fifteen minutes earlier on Thursday, thirty minutes earlier on Friday and  forty-five minutes earlier on Saturday.  On Sunday night, bedtime can be at the regular time which is now one hour later, but only fifteen minute later than the night before.

Whether you take this advice or not, you should at least be mindful of the fact that the time change will likely affect us all. Remember that children aren’t the only ones who misbehave when they’re tired!


Read more | Comments (0) | March 7th, 2011