It’s that time of year again.
Early Sunday morning marks the spring forward step of daylight saving and with it, the loss of an hour of sleep.
“During daylight hours is when our ‘awake hormone’ is released, and as it nighttime approaches, our bodies will release more melatonin, ‘the sleepy hormone,’” said child sleep consultant Heather Young. “When we do daylight saving, we are shifting our clock so all of us will feel out of sorts as we adjust.”
According to Young, this might be harder for the little ones. She has recommendations for parents to account for this.
“Leading into daylight saving you can slowly adjust their schedules 15 minutes at a time,” she said. “So that on Sunday you’re right on schedule.”
Young also suggests getting plenty of fresh air in the daylight and putting up blackout blinds in the bedroom.
She says that younger babies will need to be woken up earlier to ensure their nap schedule stays regularly.
This year, daylight saving has fallen the Sunday before March Break, meaning kids will have a week to adjust their schedules before going back to school.
Matt Wells of Waterloo Fire Rescue recommends that while everyone’s putting their clocks back, they might as well check smoke alarm batteries.
“Smoke alarms save lives,” he said. “But they can’t do that if they aren’t working properly.”
