Tips for helping your toddler adjust to daylight savings

This year’s daylight savings coincides with a large lunar eclipse so it may affect people more profoundly.
Newborn babies are rarely affected with this change, but some toddlers and young children can really struggle with the change in routine and even adults can also be affected for approximately a week. So patience is essential for big and little kids! Children who haven’t received the required amount of sleep are more likely to misbehave, become moody and develop behavioural problems such as aggression.
Sleep expert and founder of SleepDrops, Kirsten Taylor, shares her tips on getting your little one into a new routine when daylight savings starts.
* This week, before daylight saving ends, gradually put your child to bed 10 minutes earlier each night. That way, it won’t be such a shock to the system come Sunday evening.
* Understand it may take a week or two for your child to adjust, so expect that you may have a tired and grumpy child after the time change.
* This one really applies for any evening - avoid screens for at least an hour and a half before sleep. It has been scientifically proven that interaction with things like cell phones, TVs, tablets and computers can delay the onset of sleep.
* If your child can tell the time, put a clock on their bedside table. This will help prevent them trying to stay up later than normal.
* Since the evenings will be much lighter, children will want to stay up later. Invest in some blackout curtains so they sleep through the longer hours of sunshine.