Daylight Savings time and Routines

The sun set, but not his hope.
Stars rose; his faith was earlier up
Fixed on the enormous galaxy,
Deeper and older seemed his eye
And matched his sufferance sublime
The taciturnity of time.
He Spoke, and words more soft than rain
Brought the Age of Gold again:
His action won such reverence sweet
As hid all measure of the feat

Daylight Savings time usually takes it toll on most people. You wake up feeling like you usually do and then all of a sudden it hits you that the time you thought it was is not and this ends up leaving you feel confused and out of sorts.

This can also be extremely hard for young children as well. Even though it may seem as though initially the are unaffected by the days end you can tell that same confusion has struck them too.

In order to practice good sleep hygiene, many researchers advise you to:

• Go to bed and get up at the same time each day, even on the weekends.
• Exercise regularly during the day
• Keep the bedroom dark, quiet, and comfortable.
• Set aside about 45 minutes or more to wind down at the end of the day before going to bed.
• Avoid stress and worrisome thoughts in the evening before sleep.

Now how to help ease that transition for your children:

• Maintain your child's regular sleep, wake and nap times. Try not to compensate for the lost hour by delaying bedtime or allowing your child to sleep in. This will increase the time it takes to transition. There may be some crankiness from being tired, but this should last only a day or two.
  
  
• Make gradual adjustments. Some parents find it is best to try to start making adjustments on Saturday night rather than wait until Sunday, a school night. You might even want to try making a slow transition starting on Thursday night before the time change, moving your child's bedtime earlier by 15 minutes each night. By Sunday night you will be right back on schedule.