How to sail through the October clock change

We gain an hour's sleep when the clocks go back, which might be great for us, but not so great when our little ones wake at 5am or earlier!

This can be a challenge at both ends of the night as you try to keep your tired child up the night before, and then struggle with an early wake.

Here’s how you can adjust their body clock in advance, based on a 7pm – 6-7am sleep-to-wake cycle (adjust accordingly for your child’s routine).

On Wednesday, move your whole bedtime routine 15 mins later (from bath time – not just lights off) so that bedtime is 7.15pm. To make this easier for your baby or toddler (the younger the baby, the less flexibility with awake windows before getting overtired) you can try to elongate one of their naps by 15 mins or, if you have an older child, they should just be able to manage to stay up slightly later.
On Thursday, if you're waking your baby or toddler, leave them until 7.15/20am. If they wake earlier (which would be more common!), see if you can delay getting them up if content or delay first morning light exposure a little longer, and then begin your day aiming for all timings to shift by 15 mins. Otherwise, stretch them a little between naps to help make up the difference.
Feeds and mealtimes help to program our circadian clocks, so if you normally do breakfast at 8am, do it at 8.15am instead. Again, if your child naps, try to adjust these timings so that bedtime can shift by another 15 mins to 7.30pm.
On Friday, use the same approach so that bedtime is around 7.45pm.
Saturday, use the same approach so that bedtime is around 8pm.
When the clocks go back at 2am on Sunday, you should find that your child wakes closer to their normal time. Then continue the day in the new time zone with feed/meal/naps times. It might then take a few days after this for your child’s body clock to fully settle into the change.
If your child is in day care with fixed timings or you want a simpler approach, an alternative is to start this process on Friday bedtime instead and split the difference, so aiming for 7.30pm and then 8pm on Saturday night.

Troubleshooting tips:

Do make sure the room where your child sleeps is fully blacked out
Give your child some outdoor active play late afternoon/early evening over these days as this helps to regulate their body clock and promote deeper sleep
Once the clocks have changed, if your child is still waking earlier than normal, avoid shifting a morning milk/drink or breakfast forwards to compensate, as this is likely to reinforce a new earlier rising pattern
With younger babies, you may find it more manageable to shift their timings more gradually over a longer period before the clocks change, shifting bedtime by 15 mins every 2 days, or doing 10-minute increments across the week from Monday instead