So it has been about two weeks since the end of Daylight Savings Time. My post on this topic generated a lot of interest, so I’m curious how this played out for the readers of my blog. This is super unscientific. The polling tool doesn’t make it easy for me to, say, tease out differences between multiple children or factor in age.
I can tell you my experience. I have two and five-year old boys. I kept them up late for the two nights before “falling back” by 30 minutes on the first night and 45 on the second. I couldn’t follow my own plan as pushing back an hour over two days was not possible for my kids– they got too cranky. For the first morning, they actually slept in to 7 AM new time which was our desired wake time. Then, over the next few days, they started getting up earlier (as early as 5:30 AM for the 2 yo and 6:15 AM for the 5 yo) and now are getting up between 6:30 and 6:45 AM, which is fine. Interestingly, the five-year old has had some nocturnal and early AM awakenings which are unusual for him.
I’m really curious to hear about your experiences. Please share them in the comments. There is little in the pediatric literature on this topic so I may actually put together a more scientific survey next year. I know from clinical experience that some children with developmental issues, especially autism, can have severe disruption associated with this; for a first hand description of this, read this dad’s recent blog post, so I would be especially interested in the perspective of the parents of autistic children.
My youngest of 4 children is 8. She is going to bed earlier than before as a result of DST. We have maintained the earlier bedtime since DST began. She seems tired earlier and the fact that it is dark outside earlier also helps.
Thanks for your experience. The older ones did better? I think that most teens benefit from going to bed and getting up a bit earlier.
My seven month old has not done well. He was getting up at 5 am and we are very slowly working back toward 6 am but hoping to make it back to a bit closer to 7. Keeping him up late has been a challenge too. He is just too grumpy.
The early morning awakenings are SO PAINFUL. You could do very slow incremental changes to bedtime e.g. 5-10 min a day. Good luck!
Thanks! We have a bad sleeper on our hands to begin with so the time change has been really hard.
I appreciate your comment Robyn. It is remarkable how strong the wakefulness drive is in some children– many do not extend their sleep period for catch up sleep like you or I would. You could try using a wake up clock. Set it to 6 AM then gradually move it later. You can rig one up with a nightlight or just buy one. That being said, many kids get up at 6 AM.
More on the wake up clock here:
http://drcraigcanapari.com/2012/03/20/early-morning-awakenings-what-to-do-about-them/