Anxious about clocks going back and my 7 year old’s sleep

[Autumnhedgehog]

My 7 year old DS is a bad sleeper and an early riser. He’s up at 5:30am most days which is bad enough but with the clocks going back tonight I’m worried he’ll be up at 4:30 to start the day.
We have a long day ahead of travelling tomorrow as we’re going away for half term.

Any tips? I know he’s 7 but he’s never slept well and he’s AUDHD.

Don't change your clocks tonight, OP. They change next week.

They change tonight.

It's hard, I remember this when ours were young but it just seems to right itself after a couple of nights.

I'd change the clocks today so you're already in the right place time wise and he goes to bed later.

It's a killer but there's not a lot you can do. If he sleeps in the car while you're traveling that will give you a bit of respite though

Keep him up a bit later.

Change your clocks tonight.

Clocks do go back this weekend.
Can you change any clocks he can see on sunday morning, once he's already up? That way he'll just sleep and wake up as normal. In other words just keep his nights sleep on current time. Change his clock Sunday.
Hope that makes sense.

It’s not so much that, but his body clock will be set to waking up at the usual time.
So he’ll have had the usual amount of sleep by 4:30/5 instead of 5:30/6.

Yes but so will you, so it’s not like you’ll be more tired for a day of travelling tomorrow after waking at 4.30am than you would have been today waking at 5.30am.

It’ll sort itself. I feel out of kilter for a few days, but it’s what we have to deal with.

How do you normally deal with clock changes?
I have a 6 year old who doesn’t sleep well and gets up at the crack of dawn (autistic). We’ve been putting him to bed gradually later and later this week to try and get on the new schedule.

Can't see the problem if youre travelling? He can just sit down all day

They change at 2am, ie tonight........

But, as others have said, you'll be going to bed at the same time as usual to so whatever time he wakes up, he'll have the same hours of sleep. As will you.

The clocks are changing. Not time itself!

Put his bedtime back an hour

On the plus side, you might get a night or 2 of early nights before he realises.

🤦🏼‍♀️

Put him to bed a bit later tonight until it all catches up, he’ll still be sleeping the same amount of time and so will you.

Yeah that's me wrong there.

I thought they were changing next week, at the end of the half term holiday.

I consider myself corrected!

This time of year is notoriously bad for kids' sleep. I find mine are always up a lot later in autumn/winter and find it much harder to switch off. I guess the "normal" light dark divide between day and night just goes and it's disorienting. I hope the clock change is not too bad. Only 6 months until it goes forward again and sanity is restored.

They always change on the last Saturday in October and March x

No advice but solidarity, I’m 9 months pregnant and have a toddler who loves a 5am wake up, can’t wait to hear “good morning mama” at 4am tomorrow😂

If you’re travelling anyway can you not just leave earlier if he’s up early and beat the traffic?
It’s not like you’ll be any more tired than usual since presumably you’ll be going to bed at the normal time tonight.

I get that psychologically it’s rubbish to wake up and see 4.30am on the clock, but realistically nothing has actually changed. You’ll have had the same amount of sleep as you would have if the clocks hadn’t changed.

Five months.