On Sunday, the country will be adjusting their clocks to be one hour ahead, marking the official start of British Summer Time. Traditionally, this was done to aid farmers. However now, it allows us to have lighter mornings as we head into spring.
Although the clocks only change by an hour, this can have an impact on daily routine for babies and toddlers, particularly when it comes to sleep. Losing an hour during the night means either your child will sleep an hour less than usual, and therefore be tired or cranky, or wakes up an hour later and loses an hour of their morning routine.
A good way to mitigate this is to go halfway, and wake up half an hour “earlier” and only loose half an hour either way. This will soon be corrected the next day and should have a minimal impact on your child’s routine.
Your child may also be impacted by the changes in the time that the sun sets and rises. With the evenings and mornings getting brighter, children may struggle with sleeping during daylight or earlier waking due to sunrises. Not all children will struggle with this, but for those that do, trying black out blinds or eye masks can be a good way to combat this and ensure your child is getting enough sleep.
Whilst British Summer Time presents some difficulties in change, it is a good time to introduce your child to the concept of change. It marks the change in seasons, and the official start towards an improvement in the weather and amount of daylight. Adapting to small changes such as this will help your child deal with bigger changes later on.
However it affects you, remember to put your clocks forward this weekend!
