Daylight Savings Time: What Happens to Baby’s Sleep When the Clocks Change

A baby’s sleep patterns can challenge parents on the best of days. No wonder, then, that with the clocks changing because of the end of summer time – and thereby altering any hard-earned schedule by an hour – parents may be concerned about the effect on their children.

There is a growing body of scientific research into baby sleep that is helping to dispel some of the myths surrounding it (you can read more about the science of baby sleep in this article). So what does science have to tell families about how infants and toddlers might cope with the time change? And any tips to make the transition from summer to winter easier?

First, it is true that for babies, as for adults, it may take time to adjust. “Even though mechanical clocks change in an instant, corp Clock changes take time to implement,” says Pamela Douglas, an Australian general practitioner, sleep researcher and study founder. Sleep intervention in opossumsa parent-child sleep approach that has been adopted by healthcare professionals around the world.

An analysis, for example, analyzed how over 600 children slept after the clocks changed in the spring. It found that, on average, it took three days for children aged one to two to return to their original bedtime – and eight days for infants under one.

Children’s wake-up times have also changed. But for some age groups, on average, it wasn’t by a full hour, meaning they slept slightly less overall compared to before the clock change. The six- to 11-month-old infants’ nighttime sleep was about seven to 15 minutes shorter even four weeks after daylight saving time compared to before. (For toddlers, total nighttime sleep returned to baseline after just one week).

Because the researchers didn’t track sleep time, however, it’s unclear whether this meant total sleep loss over a 24-hour period — as medical sleep associations, including those in the U.S. National Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicinestructure their recommendations. Even if it were, seven to 15 minutes in 24 hours is still a fraction of the amount of sleep children should be getting in general. For infants aged four to 11 monthsfor example, the recommended range is 12 to 15 hours in 24 hours.

It’s also worth noting that sleep – even for infants – is flexible and adaptable. In fact, our preoccupation with strict, year-round sleep schedules for babies appears to be a relatively recent phenomenon and remains far from universal. Numerous ethnographic accounts of preindustrial societies, for example, have found that infants and children normally or sleep with their caretakers (and go to sleep when their caregivers do), or simply fall asleep in a caregiver’s arms or in a sling wherever they are, whenever they feel sleepy, including at social events.