Psst! Scroll to the very bottom to see my screen grabs for easy reference!

 

Parents tend to get very stressed out about Daylight Saving Time each year. But the good news is that springing forward is much easier on families than falling back! Yay!

In this quick blog (or episode if you prefer to listen) I walk you through the basics with 3 different approaches you can chose from depending on your unique situation. Don't forget to head to the blog link below and get your screen grabs for easy referencing!

*This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my privacy and disclosure statement for more information.

 

Option #1 for time change

Who should use this option?

• If morning life for you is pretty laid back and you don't have morning appointments that you need to get up and ready for
• OR if you have a child who is waking earlier than you'd like

 

This one is real simple. Don't change anything and just let them sleep in on Sunday! I'd still wake them by 8am but otherwise, let them sleep in! (Keep in mind, sleeping until 8am on Sunday will actually feel like 7am to their bodies)

Then go on with your day from there. If you use wake windows, continue to use them like usual. If you have set nap times, you'll need to shift them later according to how late your child slept in the morning. But that's it! Easy breezy!

 

 

Option #2 for time change

Who should use this option?

• If you have places to be in the mornings so you can't just let your child sleep in
• Also, if your child doesn't seem to be sensitive to schedule changes
• Or if your child is 18 months or older

 

This one requires little to no prep. Do everything normally with their schedule leading up to Sunday and the time change. On Sunday, you will wake them up at the usual time (according to the clock). So if morning wake up is usually 7am, you will wake them up at that time- even though to their body, that will really feel like 6am.

Then go about your day like usual. No fuss! Use your usual wake windows or your usual set nap times. *This is what me and my family do!*

 

 

Option #3 for time change

Who should use this option?

• If you prefer a more gradual approach to time changes
• If your child is younger
• Or if your child is more sensitive to schedule changes

 

This is the slightly more gradual approach. We still aren't going to spend a ton of time and energy shifting the schedule because that's honestly just making it more complicated than it needs to be! But we are going to spend 2 days adjusting the schedule to be a bit more gradual.

On Sunday, let your child sleep until 30 minutes later according to the clock. So if your child usually wakes at 6:30am, you will let them sleep until 7am on Sunday. This will make everything on Sunday feel like it's shifted roughly 30 minutes later as well- including bedtime.

Then on Monday, wake your child up at their old, usual wake up time. From my example above, that would be 6:30am. Then the rest of your day will fall into place like your typical daily schedule.

 

Important Reminder

With the clocks changing, it is going to be light in the evenings at bedtime. You need to ensure your child's room is plenty dark at bedtime. I highly recommend BlackoutEZ Window Covers if you need a better window solution. If you need a cheap, quick fix then aluminum foil works wonders! Tape it up over the windows and it completely blocks out all the light!

Bottom line, we need to block the sun from coming into their room at bedtime or else they may have a harder time falling asleep in the evening.

If you have a toddler or preschooler, you will want to start talking to the now about the time change to prep them. This doesn't need to be a high level conversation but something simple: "Winter is almost over and it's almost spring! Yay! That means the sun will stay out later too."

Then you can have the conversation that even though the sun is out later, it is still bedtime according to the clock. Then hold firm with your boundaries if they struggle to adjust. They will get there!

Perhaps you've heard this sleep tip before: "Pull bedtime earlier if you are dealing with early morning wakings." I know, I know. It sounds crazy but in many cases, an earlier bedtime can actually *help* with early morning wakings. If you feel skeptical, you’re not alone. Let’s walk through this piece of sleep advice below and see if it’s the right solution for your situation!

 

How can an early bedtime help?

Baby & toddler sleep can feel sooo counterintuitive sometimes. And if you have an early riser, you’ve probably had at least one person tell you to just keep them up later and not to let them nap much in order to solve early wakings. On the surface it makes sense, right? Less day sleep and a later bedtime should equal more night sleep and a later wake up. However, this advice is not going to get you far in most cases. 

 

The main reason is overtiredness. This is a state that your child will be in if they are kept up too long or not allowed to get adequate sleep. So what does this mean for your child if they are overtired?

 

Essentially, sleep begets sleep. The more well-rested your child is, the more likely they are to be able to get the sleep they need. When they become overtired, their body can start to resist sleep. This may look like difficulty falling asleep when it’s bedtime or naptime, sleeping more restlessly and waking more frequently. It will look like they don’t need or want sleep when it’s actually the very thing their body is craving.

 

On a biological level, overtiredness causes an increase in our stress hormone, cortisol, and that is what can disrupt sleep when cortisol levels are higher than normal. 

 

At night, it’s normal for our baseline cortisol levels to drop as our melatonin (sleepy hormone) levels rise. Then in the early morning, our melatonin levels naturally start dropping and our cortisol levels start rising. When our cortisol levels reach a certain threshold, it’s our brain’s signal to wake up for the day!

 

So you can see how starting the night with a slightly elevated cortisol level (from overtiredness and a late bedtime)  can lead to an earlier start the next day instead of a later one!

 

What’s the right bedtime to avoid overtiredness?

Depending on your child’s age, they can tolerate being awake for different amounts of time before they’ll need to go to bed. A wake window is what we call that period of time. Below are some loose guidelines I use based on your little one’s age. Ideally you don’t want your wake window before bed to be greater than the numbers below:

 

4-6 months: 2-2.5 hours

7-9 months: 2.5-3.5 hours

10-14 months: 3.5-4 hours

15+ months: 5-6 hours

For no nappers (3+ years of age): Aim for 12-13 hours of total night sleep and plan your bedtime accordingly.

For more help with understanding age appropriate wake windows for your baby, check out this freebie with my wake window chart.

 

If you are currently struggling with early wakings AND your wake window before bed is longer than I suggest above, give it a tweak and see if it helps!

 

When does an early bedtime not work to solve early morning wakings?

While I love an early bedtime, it’s not *always* the solution to early wakings. I know “12 hour nights” is the gold standard of sleep on the internet but it’s not always possible for babies and toddlers. Some children won’t ever sleep more than 10-11 hours overnight and that’s okay. With this information in mind, you can see how an early bedtime of 6 or even 6:30pm could still lead to 5am wake ups. So it’s important to keep the whole picture of your child’s schedule and sleep needs in mind as you navigate early wakings.

 

Why are early wakings so challenging?

Early wakings can be among the most frustrating of sleep issues when you’re a parent. You feel like you would do almost anything just to get an extra hour of sleep in the morning. Your baby’s sleep pressure is lowest around 4-6am and that’s part of the reason why early wakings can feel so prevalent.

 

Habits can play a big role as well and therefore, when you are making tweaks to solve early wakings, you can’t expect to see instance progress. Oftentimes it will take weeks of consistency on your end before you will see your baby or toddler starting to wake later.

 

That’s why I’ve created my Early Waking Mini Course! It walks tired moms through simple steps they can take to improve early wakings. This way you know what changes need to be addressed and you can have the confidence to stay consistent with them for the long haul- so you can actually see your hard work pay off!

I could not *love* this toddler sleep trainer lamp from Kidstible more! It checks all my boxes and guys, I am picky! So I can't wait to share it's features with you! Let's get your child sleeping until a decent time in the morning, shall we?!

 

 

*This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my privacy and disclosure statement for more information.

This toddler sleep trainer lamp is a GREAT visual!

First off, this lamp is shaped like a battery. This lends to a great visual representation of what sleep does for our bodies. In the toddler/preschooler age, one big struggle with sleep is it can feel like a punishment or like your child is missing out on fun. But we want to try to convey the message that sleep helps us grow and get smarter! Using the visual of a battery makes a great conversation starter. "What happens when you sleep? It's like recharging your battery!"

As the night goes on, the battery lights up more and more until morning when the battery is fully charged and fully lit. Same thing for naps and quiet time if you choose to use it then!

Set your schedule on the app

After you get your Kidstible, you can download the free app and start setting up your schedule. You'll select the time the lamp starts "charging," and what your morning wake up time will be when the lamp is fully "charged."

You can also set up different schedules for different days. In my house I have a separate schedule on Monday-Friday than I have on the weekends (yay for sleeping in a little on the weekends!)

In addition to having a set schedule you can also use the lamp on the fly without having any schedules set.

Use the toddler sleep trainer lamp for nap/quiet time

Not only can you use the Kidstible lamp for night time and early mornings, you can use it for your child's daily nap and quiet time too! Either choose to add it in to your daily schedules with a set start and end time or you can easily select the nap timer to count down from a specific amount of time.

 

Change the color and brightness level

This lamp is completely customizable. You can use a color wheel to select the color of the battery. I recommend going with a red or amber color (as we know red light does not inhibit melatonin production) but if you decide to go with a different color, you have options! You can also assign different colors to different schedules you create. I have our night schedules set on red light but our quiet time schedule set on blue.

You can also change the brightness level of the lamp. From bright to very dim. Personally we use it on the dimmest setting and it's perfect for night time sleep.

Once fully charged the lamp will run for 14 hours

This may seem like a small thing but if you've ever had a power outage ruin your night of sleep, you'll understand! With the Kidstible lamp, if your power goes out, it won't affect your child's sleep.

Likewise, if your toddler knocks it off the charging dock or wants to sleep with it in their bed, that's okay too! It will still work just as it's meant to.

 

 

If you're ready to introduce a toddler sleep trainer lamp, I cannot recommend Kidstible enough.

Check it (and other products I love) out on my discount page or my Amazon storefront.

How early did your child wake up this morning? If it's anytime before 6am, we've got an early waking on hands! 🤮 BUT that doesn't mean it has to be this way forever! In this blog I walk you through the main 4 reasons your child is waking early and how you can fix them and teach your child to sleep until a more reasonable time.

 

What is considered an Early Waking for Babies and Toddlers?

Any waking between 4am and 6am is considered an early waking. Unfortunately, if your baby wakes at 6:15am, it may feel early but it's actually a natural biological time for them. We'd all love it if our babies slept until 8am but it's not something to expect. Your baby's internal clock naturally falls to a 7-8pm bedtime and 6-7am wake up time. Let's go over some of the major reasons why your baby might be waking earlier than 6am. You may find that several of these reasons are coming into play or even just one.

 

*This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my privacy and disclosure statement for more information.

Reason #1 Your baby is not motivated to keep sleeping.

Everyone's sleep cycles are shorter and lighter between 4 and 6 am. Our brains spend more time in REM sleep which is naturally lighter, making it easier to be woken up. Each sleep cycle gets shorter and shorter as well which means there are just more chances your baby will wake as they transition multiple times between sleep cycles. If you're baby is not an independent sleeper (meaning they don't know how to fall asleep without help), they will not be able to fall back asleep without intervention at these frequent, early wakings.

Even if your baby or toddler is an independent sleeper, they are not as motivated as adults who tend to work for every last drop of sleep in the morning. When we, as adults, wake briefly we are motivated to fall back asleep because we recognize that it's not yet time to wake up. Your baby doesn't realize that and they REALLY won't realize that if you start your day at whatever time they wake. The biggest thing you can do to motivate your sleeper to keep sleeping in the morning is to give them the gift of independent sleep. 

Reason #2 Light and YOU are signaling to your baby's brain that it's time to get up!

We've got to make sure that no signals are being sent to your baby that it's time to wake up. If any bit of light is creeping into your baby's room, it's sending a direct signal to your baby's brain that it's morning. Get that bedroom DARK. Go in at 5/6am and see how dark the room is. If you can see your hand in front of your face, it's not dark enough.

I like to use a scale of 1-10 with 1 being light and bright and 10 being pitch black. Your baby's room should fall at an 8-10 on that scale. This takes some maneuvering but is oftentimes a simple fix for sleep problems.

Also, make sure YOU aren't sending your baby signals that it's okay to be awake. If you get them up right away when they wake early, you are telling their internal clock that it's an okay time to wake for the morning. If you don't have one, set a designated wake time (DWT) for your baby and stick to it. It should be about 11-12 hours after bedtime.

If your DWT is 6:30am, then you should not get your child out of their dark room until that time. When they wake early, use your sleep coaching method until DWT. The least interaction and stimulation you can give during this time, the better.

Reason #3 Bedtime is too late.

A bedtime that is too late can actually cause your baby to wake too early. This truth goes against common sense and what you may hear given as advice, but it's true. Your child's natural biological clock is wired to go down between 7 and 8pm.

If bedtime is later than that and you are experiencing early wake ups, try shifting bedtime earlier by 15-30 minutes. You should aim for your baby or toddler to be getting 11-12 hours of sleep overnight and for them to have between 12 and 13 hours from wake up to bedtime. It's a myth that keeping your child up later will help them to sleep in in the morning.

Reason #4 Entire schedule is shifted too early.

I get it, your child wakes at 5am so their first nap has to be early because they are a tired mess by 7am. However, this causes all the other naps to occur early as well. This then leads to either a super early bedtime or an extra, crappy nap before a late bedtime. Neither are helpful to your baby's schedule. In fact, this just perpetuates the problem, leading to an tired baby and a vicious cycle of early wakings!

The best way to keep this from happening is to make the shift with nap 1. Hold it off until later, even if your baby is a tired mess. Use your DWT (yes, you MUST have one of these) to determine when nap 1 should occur. Do NOT use the actual time your baby is waking. This will take work and it won't be easy to keep a tired baby awake until their nap time but it's WORTH it!

If your baby is fussy, get creative. Sing songs, dance, play in the tub, go crawl around outside in the grass together! Like all things with sleep, the hard work will be worth it and that slight schedule shift might be just the what your baby needs to sleep until a decent time in the morning.

Got a toddler? 

Be sure to check out the Mella sleep trainer toddler clock (save 10% with code: allthesleeps10) and the Kidstible sleep lamp. These are both great tools to help your toddler understand when it's an acceptable time to wake up for the day. Like any other sleep tool, you'll need to put in work on the front end to enforce the clock but once your toddler catches on, it's a great visual!

 

Last piece of advice:

Early wake ups can take TIME to be resolved. You need to consistently stick to your plan for 2 weeks before you might see results. Because of this time commitment, some parents are quick to give up and resign themselves that their baby is just an "early riser." In most cases, this is not true!
 
If your child is waking early and is unhappy, obviously cranky, and a tired mess by the end of the day, these are all signs that they are not simply an "early riser." They do NEED that sleep they just don't know how to get it.

I get soooo many inquiries and questions about toddler sleep! At the same time, I notice a very prevalent attitude of resignation when it comes to toddler sleep. I want to help with that!!

Toddler sleep can be tricky and whether you’ve had a great little sleeper for the last year or so and now sleep is starting to fall apart OR if you’ve just never gotten into a good sleep rhythm, that’s okay! I promise, there is hope for your little one!

 

Let’s first talk about who is considered a ‘toddler.’ Technically, the toddler age is 12-36 months. For the purposes of this blog, I’m going to focus more on 15-36 months.

*This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my privacy and disclosure statement for more information.

 

Reason #1 why toddler sleep sucks: 2 ⇒ 1 nap transition

I find a lot of our sleep issues crop up right around that transition from 2 to 1 nap, which takes place between 15 and 18 months of age. The point of this blog isn’t to go over this nap transition specifically, but I do want to give you some pointers about this transition:

✩Hitting 15 months does not mean that you HAVE to transition. If sleep is going fine, then don’t rush it.

✩You’ll start by pushing nap 1 later and later.

✩Once nap 1 is ending late enough, that’s when you’ll cut out the second nap completely.

✩Again, bedtime will be on the later end right before the transition and then jump to early right after the transition. This gives them the chance to make up for the lost nap and to recover from the longer wake windows

 

For more help with this transition, check out my Nap Schedules & Transitions Bundle where I walk you step by step through each nap transition!

 

Reason #2 why toddler sleep sucks: 18-24 month sleep regression

Now, technically there is a regression at 18 months and another one at 24 months BUT I think it can feel like the regressions last the whole 6 months in between, especially when said regressions aren’t handled the best and we start reinforcing these sleep issues….

 

The 18 month regression is typically contributed to by separation anxiety, an explosion of language development, walking, first year molars, and your toddler learning they can say, “No.”

 

The 24 month regression is typically contributed to by nighttime fears cropping up. FOMO, boundary testing, nap refusals, climbing, potty training, second year molars, and a too early crib to bed transition.

 

 

Reason #3 why toddler sleep sucks: Teething

Those back molars come in during the toddler phase and they can cause some upset during this time. But it’s important not to let teething derail your good sleep progress!

 

Remember, during teething, the pain/discomfort should really only last 1-3 days as the tooth comes through. It shouldn’t be the cause of weeks of sleep disruption. Also, teething isn’t uncomfortable enough to wake your toddler up. It may mean that it’s a little harder for them to fall back asleep when they naturally have wakings but it’s not waking them up.

 

If you worry they are in pain, quietly go into their room when they wake, offer your pediatrician’s recommended dosage of pain relief, and then leave again. Avoid over helping at these times because it might come back to bite you both in the future.

 

Reason #4 why toddler sleep sucks: Language development

Did you know your toddler’s language explodes right around 18 months? Your baby goes from saying only a few words at 1 year to knowing 1,000-2,000 words at 3 years! That’s a LOT of learning and development and you better believe it affects sleep!

 

One way it can affect sleep is that your toddler just wants to lay in their crib and chatter away instead of sleep! This is an area where we have to just let it go. You obviously can’t control whether or not your toddler sleeps when in their crib but you can control the consistency with which you put them to bed each and every day.  

 

Reason #5 why toddler sleep sucks: Separation anxiety

I’m not going to go super in depth about separation anxiety because I actually have another post, Tips for Handling Separation Anxiety Without Compromising Sleep, that you should check out.

 

But I will say that separation is a completely normal part of your toddler’s development (however un-fun it may be) and that when it comes to sleep, we want to keep everything as consistent as possible. Toddlers thrive under routine and an ever changing bedtime routine is only going to make the problem persistent and long-term rather than short-term and acute.  

 

Reason #6 why toddler sleep sucks: Potty training

I see the need to night time potty train affect sleep as well. Again, I’ve written a more detailed blog about this exact topic of potty training, but here are some quick takeaways:

1. Day time potty training and nighttime potty training do NOT need to happen at the same time.
2. Night time potty training should be held off until your child is consistently waking up dry in the morning
3. The transition from crib to bed should not revolve around the decision to potty train, which leads to my next toddler sleep issue...

 

Reason #7 why toddler sleep sucks: Crib to bed transition

Ahhh! This one is my pet peeve. Sorry guys. I always, always, ALWAYS recommend you wait as long as you can to make this transition. You may think I’m crazy BUT I will tell you that a majority of the toddler and preschooler clients I help, need help in the first place because they made the transition too soon. Can’t argue with the facts, folks!

 

If you want more specifics about keeping your toddler in their crib, see this post with my crib hacks.

If you are ready to make the transition but need some more guidance, check out my Crib To Bed Transition Guide.

 

Here’s my brief takeaway about the crib to bed transition:

Your toddler cannot understand the invisible boundaries of a bed. With a crib, there are physical bars keeping them in, but with a bed, we are expecting them to understand something they cannot see. Transitioning them too early is just setting them up for failure.

 

If you must transition them early, make sure you are prepared with a visible boundary (baby gate or door) so that their brain can make the connection it needs to.

 

Reason #8 why toddler sleep sucks: Nap strikes

Even the best little sleepers can go through nap strikes. I see this most around the age of 2 but it can honestly happen anytime during toddlerhood. But here’s the deal, when it comes to toddlers, naptime is not optional. 

 

Naptime should happen everyday, regardless of whether or not they actually sleep. We need to keep the framework in place so that when their nap strike is over, they can seamlessly fall back into naps.

 

Don’t give up on napping and don’t cut it short. If you reach the end of nap time and your toddler has yet to nap, be sure to offer an early bedtime so that they aren’t a wreck that night.

 

Reason #9 why toddler sleep sucks: FOMO

Fear of missing out. Your toddler can totally understand now that just because they go to bed, it doesn’t mean that everyone else is going to bed. Understandably, they don’t want to miss out on all the fun!

 

This can cause those nap refusal and bedtime battles. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do on this front. Your toddler still needs a nap, even if they don’t want to take one (and they’ll need one until at least 3 years so don’t give it up too soon!). Your toddler still needs an earlier bedtime than Mom and Dad, even though they will likely protest this. These pieces play into our next issue and I’ll talk about what you can do more...

 

Reason #10 why toddler sleep sucks: Limit testing

Your toddler is good at testing boundaries. And they should be! Boundary testing is an important part of their learning and development! But as parents, our job is to hold the important boundaries firm so that your child can figure out what you expect of them. This is a great article about testing limits by Janet Lansbury, parenting expert.

 

Think of it this way (and I apologize, this is a really weird analogy but go with it): Imagine you find yourself inside this big bubble. You push on the bubble walls with your hands and notice they stretch and move when you push them. You continue to push and push, seeing how flexible the walls really are. It’s not until the walls stop moving and you’ve reached their limit do you stop pushing, right? You figure, there’s no point in continuing to push the walls because they’re not going to move anymore.

 

That’s exactly how your toddler views limits. They will keep pushing and pushing until they understand exactly where that limit is. And they can’t know where the limit is if we, as parents, don’t show them. In Janet Lansbury’s article, she explains that they can get stuck in testing mode if we aren’t making our limits clear.

 

This, I believe, is the main reason why toddler sleep can get so out of hand.

We give a little here, we give a little there, and before we know it, our toddler is testing every single limit that we have around sleep. In the end we feel like we are constantly fighting them so we just give up and find ourselves in a sleep situation that we never wanted to be in: 

• Laying with your toddler until they fall asleep
• Letting your toddler dictate when bedtime is 
• Bringing your toddler into your bed
• Allowing 5am to become your new wake up time
• Letting your toddler quit napping
• And the list goes on...

 

 

Wowza! We covered a LOT but if you’re still reading, I’m guessing it’s because you are in the trenches of toddler sleep. I hope this was helpful in pointing out the why and what you can do moving forward.

 

Got a toddler who already struggles with early waking? Check out these 2 toddler clocks I recommend:

 

The Kidstible Toddler Lamp- This sleep trainer lamp is designed that a battery and gradually fills up as the night goes on. When it's wake up time the battery is fully charged- just like your child! To read more about my personal review of this product (I own 3 and use each one in my home) check out 5 reasons I love this toddler sleep trainer lamp.

 

The Mella toddler clock- This sleep trainer clocks alerts your child with a green light when they can wake up and start their day. Take 10% off your purchase with my code: allthesleeps10

 

Be sure to check out my Toddler & Preschooler Resource Page for all my free and paid offerings in this age group too!