How To Manage Baby’s Sleep Through Daylight Savings

With the changing of clocks approaching in Australia, managing your baby’s sleep through Daylight Savings can be a challenge. If you’ve got a newborn (or live in WA, Queensland or NT) then you don’t need to worry, but if you’re in the southern states and you’ve got your sleep routine in place, you may be panicking.

Newborns generally don’t keep to a clock, waking when they are hungry or wet, and sleeping when they are fed and comfortable. But if your baby is a bit older and you’ve worked hard on your sleep routine, there are ways to manage the change to reduce its impact.

The Gradual Approach

If your baby is sensitive to sleep times and reliant on a set bedtime it’s worth taking a gradual approach to tweaking their routine. Try putting your baby to bed 15 minutes earlier each day. Start this three or four days in advance, so by the time the clocks change you won’t need to make any adjustments. Don’t forget to tweak the day time naps too.

The Do Nothing Approach

You can wait for the clocks to change before you take action, but be mindful of planning anything in those few days that follow as you may find that the sudden change takes its toll. You want to be at home or close to home in case the wheels fall off and you need to settle them to bed quickly. If your baby isn’t sensitive to routines or doesn’t tire easily then this approach will suit you.

The Split the Difference Approach

You can try putting them to bed 30 minutes earlier on Saturday night, then 30 minutes earlier on Sunday night. This approach doesn’t require much preplanning from you and still gives your baby an opportunity to make an adjustment to their internal body clock.

The mornings will be brighter so make sure you’ve got your curtains or blinds drawn to block out the early morning light and increase your baby’s chances of sleeping later.

Whatever approach you try, it can take up to a week for your baby to adjust to the new sleep and waking time. It’s wise not to plan too much in the week that follows in case you have a tired baby to deal with.

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