There is something that will always accompany spring, and it is the time change. The clocks were advanced this morning of March 31 one hour, and 2 in the morning became 3. With this measure what is intended is energy saving, although it has been questioned in recent months. What is clear is that it affects us a lot, especially to the smallest of the house. Let's see how we can manage the time change in children so that they adapt as soon as possible.
How does the time change affect children?
In this case with daylight saving time, what happens is that when advancing one hour lose an hour of sleep. Being a Sunday it should not have too much effect since they can sleep more, but they are dragging throughout the day this lag in the hours of sleep. If they get up at the same time they will be sleepy all day, and their character may suffer from irritability, bad mood, ... and also in other areas such as sleep problems, lack of concentration, loss of appetite ...
Exactly the same thing happens when eating. If before they were hungry at 1 in the afternoon, now until 2 in the afternoon they will not feel like eating. Your internal clock will ask you to do things with the previous schedule and you will not understand what is happening. The effects of the time change will affect each child differently. It will depend a lot on their character, some children will be affected more than others. Every kid is a world. Just as the time change affects some people more than others.
The good news is that these effects are temporary, and in a week or two the children will adjust to the schedule again. For our part, parents can help them make the adaptation the best possible. Let's see how we can manage the time change in children.
How can we manage the time change in children?
- Advance the hours of sleep. Experts recommend preparing children for this change before it occurs. A few days before we can adapt them to the new change that is coming and advance about 10-15 minutes the time to go to bed, as well as to wake up. With which also you will have to advance all the routines that accompany it like baths, dinners, stories ...
- Change your meal and nap times. As with sleep, we can change their meal and nap times for about 15 minutes to improve adaptation.
- Put the room dark. So clearly, children will have the circadian cycle out of control. By putting your room in the dark, your body will ask you to rest and it is more predisposed to fall asleep than if it is exposed to light. Also lower the blinds throughout the house so that you do not see that it is very day.
- Avoid drinking exciting drinks. Drinks with sugar and caffeine upset them. In addition to the fact that they are not beneficial for them, taking them puts them on alert and they will not be able to sleep.
- They do not do vigorous physical activities before going to sleep. Physical activities alter them and carry energy, but the best time is not before going to sleep. A good sleep routine (baths, dinner, story) will predispose the child to sleep, while activity to the opposite.
- That they do not use electronic devices before going to sleep. We have already talked on other occasions about how electronic devices affect our brain, and one of them is that it can affect our alertness, making it difficult to sleep.
- Don't let him take a lot of naps that day. If you sleep too much that day then at night you will not want to sleep and the schedules will completely misalign.
- Be patient. The best tool with children will always be patience. It may take a few days to adjust, but it will be temporary.
Because remember ... the effects of time changes are temporary, everything will pass soon.