Copyright NBC 5 Chicago
With clocks set to fall back early Sunday morning, people around the country are preparing to adjust their sleep schedules for daylight saving time. Clocks "fall back" at the end of daylight saving time at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, Nov. 2. NBC Chicago spoke with Dr. Anastasia Mlnarik, a pediatrician with Endeavor Health, about what parents can do to ease the transition and sleep changes. Mlnarik said the way bodies of children and adult bodies adjust to daylight saving time is different. “For most adults, that’s a ‘hooray, we get an hour of sleep,’" Mlnarik said. However, children's "body clocks do not understand daylight savings time. So, usually that means your children are up an hour earlier.” Sleep rhythms in children are typically naturally set to follow a number of hours. Most children will sleep anywhere from 10 to 12 hours, Mlnarik said, so they will wake up 10 to 12 hours after they are put to bed, "regardless of when the time change has now shifted morning to be." To help kids adjust to the change and wake up at the same time they would have before daylight savings, Mlnarik says to start the adjustment process a few nights ahead of the time change. "Move the bedtime 15 minutes later than it typically would be" gradually for a few nights leading up to the time change, she suggested. "By Saturday, if your child typically goes to bed around 7:30, you’re actually putting them to bed at 8:30, and then when they wake up in the morning [...] they can have their normal day.” Mlnarik noted "falling back" tends to be easier than "springing forward" for children's adjustment as it typically isn't hard to convince kids to go to sleep 15 minutes later than they are used to. She also suggests parents make sure their children get outside during the day to help with sleepiness. "Fresh air, natural light, that will help set their circadian rhythms," she said. The final tip Mlnarik offered for how parents can help their kids adjust to daylight saving time is to start to dim the lights at home in the evening and limit all screens at least an hour before bed. “If you can dim the lighting an hour or two before you go to bed, that will really help kids and adults' bodies to naturally release the melatonin hormone that will help them get sleepy and make sleep easier in general," she said.
