If the impending time change makes you nervous for your child’s sleep, never fear! You have options for adjusting his sleep and keeping the nice, predictable schedule you’ve worked so hard to obtain. Below you’ll find detailed information about how to adjust the schedule overnight or over the course of a week, and if you’d like a printable sheet with times for each day, I have free Fall DST guide!
When it comes to adjusting Baby’s schedule for DST, you can choose a fast, medium, or slow transition option, and they’ll all work out just fine eventually. Keep in mind that we can’t force Baby to sleep when he won’t; we can only enforce Crib60 and the times we get him out of his crib. So even if he doesn’t follow the schedule of the day the way it’s laid out, that’s okay — YOU are the one to help Baby acclimate to the schedule.
Younger babies tend to do better with slower transitions, while older children can handle the quicker change. Whichever method you choose, make sure to expose Baby to plenty of sunlight and even artificial light to help re-set his biological clock to the new schedule. Also try to adjust other aspects of the schedule, like mealtimes, to fit with the schedule the way you’re adjusting it!
Fast
The simplest way to deal with DST is to do Baby’s normal schedule both the day before DST and the day after, using a training method you’re comfortable with to enforce the schedule on the day after.
For babies 6+ months, I recommend the following schedule parameters:
Wake-up time no earlier than 6am, no later than 8am
Nap 1 at 9am - Use Crib60
Nap 2 at 1pm - Use Crib60
Nap 3/bedtime after a designated amount of waketime (based on age)
You can see more details of my scheduling recommendations in my free scheduling guide.
If Baby typically wakes up at 6:30am, naps at 9:00-10:30am and 1:00-3:00pm, and goes to bed around 6:30pm, you’ll follow that schedule the day before DST and the day after, despite the fact that the times have all shifted.
The day after DST, Baby will likely wake up around 5:30am, but since that’s before 6am, you’d employ your usual training method until at least 6am (you could even leave him until 6:30am since that’s his usual wake-up time). Baby may then start to seem ready for a nap around 8:00am, but hold out until the new 9:00am, or as close as you can get to it. Use Crib60 for the nap, and wake Baby from this nap after he’s slept the normal amount of time. (Since he stayed up a little longer before the nap, he might try to take a longer nap, but only let him take as much as is usual for him.)
Medium
If you want to ease into DST a little bit slower, you can adjust the schedule by 20 or 30 minutes over a few days.
To adjust by 30 minutes: Two days before DST, Baby wakes up at 6:30am, naps at 9am and 1pm, and goes to bed at 6:30pm — his normal schedule. The next day (Saturday), you’ll shift everything 30 minutes later than usual, so you’ll wait to get him out of bed until 7:00am. Then you’ll put him down for nap 1 at 9:30am, nap 2 at 1:30pm, and bed at 7:00pm. On the day of the time change, you wait until (new) 6:30am to get Baby out of bed (he may sleep in closer to 6:30am because his bedtime the night before was pushed later, but he may not). Then you’ll put him down for his naps at (new) 9am and 1pm, and for bed at (new) 6:30pm.
To adjust by 20 minutes: Three days before DST, Baby wakes up at 6:30am, naps at 9am and 1pm, and goes to bed at 6:30pm — his normal schedule. The next day (Friday), you’ll shift everything 20 minutes later than usual, so you’ll wait to get him out of bed until 6:50am. Then you’ll put him down for nap 1 at 9:20am, nap 2 at 1:20pm, and bed at 6:50pm. The following day (Saturday), you’ll push everything 20 minutes later again (7:10am, 9:40am, 1:40pm, 7:10pm). On the day of the time change, you’ll wait until (new) 6:30am to get Baby out of bed. Then you’ll put him down for naps at (new) 9am and 1pm, and for bed at (new) 6:30pm.
Slow
If you’re catching this blog post far enough in advance of DST, you can do a slower option. A week before DST, begin shifting Baby’s schedule 10 minutes later each day.
On day 1, Baby’s schedule will be: 6:30am wake, 9:00am nap, 1:00pm nap, 6:30pm bedtime.
On day 2, Baby’s schedule will be: 6:40am wake, 9:10am nap, 1:10pm nap, 6:40pm bedtime.
On day 3, Baby’s schedule will be: 6:50am wake, 9:20am nap, 1:20pm nap, 6:50pm bedtime.
And so on, until the day before DST, Baby’s schedule will be: 7:20am wake, 9:50am nap, 1:50pm nap, 7:20pm bedtime. Then on the day of DST, you’ll use your normal timing again.
If Baby is 4-6 months and you’re not yet using a circadian schedule, just extend the last waketime by 10 minutes so that it pushes Baby’s schedule slightly later each day, until he’s back to waking and sleeping when he usually does. So if, for instance, Baby usually goes to bed around 7pm and his waketime has him going to bed at 6:55pm that night, push him to 7:05pm, and hopefully he’ll sleep in 10 minutes later the next morning so that the whole schedule will shift. Then continue to shift his bedtime each night (using his waketime + 10 minutes or so) to continue to shift his morning wakeups and subsequent naps.
If Baby is under 4 months, you likely don’t even have to worry about DST since their schedules are so irregular anyway!
So don’t fret too much about the time change — Baby will adjust just fine as long as you consistently stick to your plan of action. Remember that Baby may be a little bit off the normal schedule, and it can take a few days or even a couple weeks for Baby to fully acclimate, but it’s no different than normal sleep training, when babies’ schedules are drastically changed and they then have to adjust to the new, age-appropriate schedule. So in this case, you just treat DST a little bit like you would any sleep training, and just as with normal sleep training, consistency and proper scheduling will be key ingredients to your success!
Grab that free DST guide here to help remind you exactly how to shift each day.
And if you find that Baby’s schedule simply isn’t returning to normal — or if Baby was never on a predictable schedule to begin with — don’t hesitate to schedule a discovery call or book a full consultation to get things on track.