Can Daylight Saving Spring My Toddler’s Wake Time Forward, Please?!

It’s almost time to “spring forward,” as daylight saving time is fast approaching on March 10. And we all know what that means:

We lose an hour of sleep.

Our family, like many others with young children, currently struggles with the ongoing less-than-optimal-sleep battle. We recently sleep trained our 2-year-old son (for the second time), as he was waking multiple times during the night and rising at the pre-dawn hour of 4 a.m. With this achievement in hand, we sleep through the night once again. But we’re greedy and are always looking for extra sleep.

Prior to having children, my husband and I were competitive sleepers. On weekends, we slept in to the late morning hours. We even trained our dog to sleep in with us. The first time we sleep trained our son, we made sure he slept 12 hours at night. We had it good for roughly a year, but slowly our son’s once-amazing sleep pattern deteriorated.

For months, my husband and I chose the path of least resistance and hoped that, with time, our son’s previously sturdy sleep schedule would return. Relief never came on its own, though, so after a second round of sleep training effort, we re-achieved a manageable sleep regimen.

Now that our family has kicked up our nighttime sleep game up a notch, daylight saving time is rearing its ugly head. As with any form of sleep deprivation, we can expect the time change to bring about changes in our family’s appetite and mood, at best. More realistically, we anticipate that our toddler will turn it up to 11 and get a little more emotionally charged. Unless… unless there’s something we can do to make the landing after daylight saving time softer.

So what can we actually do about losing an hour of sleep and gaining the grogginess induced by darker mornings?

1. Make sure you’re caught up on sleep.

The National Sleep Foundation suggests getting plenty of sleep prior to daylight saving so you’re well-rested going into this disruption (way easier said than done, I know).

2. Use light to your benefit

After daylight saving, expose yourselves to sunlight as soon as it’s available, and dim the lights (and your screens) at night to cue your body that it’s almost time to doze off.

3. Adjust sleep before the weekend

For families with young kids, a Parents Magazine article recommends slowly adjusting naps and bedtimes 15 minutes earlier each day for four days prior to daylight saving. And, brace yourself here: You’ll need to wake your children from sleeping in, too. Phew! Did we just avert an overall influx of sass in our family life? Yes, yes we did.

Yet, with all of this preparation, our toddler will still wake up at 5:30 a.m. each morning. Even after eight hours of sleep, I feel more than tired waking up at this hour. So what if we do nothing in anticipation of the time change on March 10? What used to be 5:30 a.m. prior to daylight saving would now be 6:30 a.m. when the clocks roll forward. I can handle a 6:30 a.m. wakeup. If the spring forward ritual will allow my son to sleep a little later in the morning, I’m all in (thanks Dr. Canapari).

In the same way that there is no “right” way to parent, there is no “right” way to prepare for a glitch in your sleep matrix. Growing up, I recall my parents’ “do nothing” approach to springing forward, and I think we just may follow in their footsteps.

What will you do about losing an hour of sleep this March?