Daylight Savings Time Change & Kids Sleep

I'm SO ready for that extra hour of sleep!

I just try to take it half an hour at a time over the weekend, instead of the whole hour at once. It's actually not a big deal at this time of year; we find it much harder in the spring, when it suddenly means bedtime isn't dark.

I'm lucky. My son has always just easily adjusted. It's ME who has all the problems getting used to it! :-)

As an accomplished night owl and the mom of a budding night owl, I really look forward to "Fall Back."  It's practically a holiday in our house.  We hit the hay at the regular time, and then relish that extra hour of sleep that is magically bestowed on us while we slumber.  Love that Sleep Fairy!  After a few nights though, we're completely adjusted to the time change and it's back to groggy mornings.

More TV that first morning while I make strong coffee!

We're looking forward to it because it won't be dark anymore when we get up! The downside is that pretty soon it'll already be dark when the school bus arrives in the afternoon...

We've been counting down the days until daylight savings time is over and we can "fall back." It's so dark in the mornings, we've all been struggling to get out of bed and get to school on time, so we won't be doing anything different - just enjoying the extra sleep!

I don't worry too much about the fall-back time change.  But my kids are no longer babies, so there are no naps (except for mine, which I miss all too often) or 5am wakers (uh, yep, except for me).  They'll be tired enough to get to bed on time Sunday night, and I doubt they'll wake up too early for school Monday morning.  The spring-forward time change is the hard one: trying to convince them to go to bed while the sun is still up - nope, not falling for it.

Fall back is my favorite - even if the kids are up early, I am too!  And everyone's tired a little earlier as well.  Spring is the real killer for me.

I do NOTHING! Our seven and four year old kids have to be DRAGGED out of bed in the morning for school and church, so I simply relish a Sunday and Monday (and maybe even a Tuesday!) when we're not running late and have a whole extra hour. Maybe I'll even blow dry my hair...for the first time in months!

On the Saturday before "Fall Back" I always bake banana muffins and make sure there are juice boxes or milk boxes on the lowest shelf in the fridge. And I make sure the TV is all set with a kids' channel or DVD, ready to go.

That way on Sunday morning when our seven and four year old kids wake up "an hour earlier", they can grab their own breakfast and just hit the big ON button on the TV.  The result? My hubs and I can sleep for a whole extra hour!

I'll stretch 'em a half hour the day of the change and then push nap forward an hour to reset the next day.

Seriously, I HATE daylight savings. I can respect that it is good for farmers, but it STINKS when you're a parent.

If we aren't up, the kids don't tend to get up, either. Ours are a little older and even the young one is to the point that he wants to emulate his older brother, who...at 14, is WAY into sleeping late on days when he doesn't have school. They actually keep track of when they get up... like it is some sort of contest. He will stay in bed and doze until either we or his older brother gets up. Usually once we get up everyone does. Daylight Savings doesn't affect us as much since they are older. If they were younger I would employ the "keeping them up a bit longer and tiring them out" strategy!

Ever since my kids were little (like TWO!) we made a rule that they could come and get us at 7:00 no matter what time they wake up.  So we put them to bed a little later and let them sweat it out until 7:o0.  They have tons of toys in their room and it's only once a year so...it works!  Good luck to all!

We try to adjust little by little for a few days, b/c my kids are seriously finicky sleepers and it's a disaster when their schedules are thrown off. Anybody had any luck with using those lights that help adjust for the lack of sunlight? For myself, I take melatonin in the winter, to help keep my sleep on track.

We put the kids to bed a little later so maybe, just maybe, they'll wake up later. Nothing worse than 6am risers suddenly waking up at 5!