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.

What a polite child!

I get this with toddlers but with a 7yo you tell them what time they’re allowed out of bed and that’s that. 7 is little but not that little. We had groclocks so when the sun appeared they were allowed up. Dd3 used to play quietly in her bed but as long as she wasn’t waking us all up, that’s fine. A friend of mine had an early riser so before she went to bed she’d pop a bowl of dry Cheerios for him to munch on when he woke and that bought her an extra 30 mins.

OP just don't tell your DS that the clocks are going back.

You’d have been right if you were in the US, they go to daylight savings next week so my meetings are an hour early for this week.

Clocks going back isn't surprise bad planning on your part is it not ?
My kids are told to get back to bed its still dark 2 are ND I'm not playing those games

I honestly think it bothers us more than the children

My dd is 3 and went through an early waking phase. We got a gro clock which worked wonders. She stayed in her bed till the clock changed colour, usually falling back to sleep because she knew it wasn’t ‘morning’ yet. She now sleeps well past the time we set but it’s there in case!

This doesn't necessarily work with an AuDHD child. If it were that simple, I'm sure she wouldn't be asking.

This has just backfired on me horribly 🫠 he is 4 and not an idiot. God love him but sometimes I wish he wasn’t astute enough to peel back a curtain and recognise that the light has changed from night to day. I e just heard him go RED SKY IN THE MORNING, SHEPHERD’S WARNING 😅He does play in his room, although is unfortunately incapable of being quiet for long.

You aren’t compelled to do it all in one night for children…you could do it in 15 minute increments.

Do not take this advice as you'll be late for all appointments and your schedule throughout the week....

Clocks went back an hour at 2am.

Do you have actual clocks? Everything we have is digital, alexa, computer, phone, and I never notice the change now as it's done in the background. If I woke up and saw 4.30am I'd simply go back to sleep for an hour, or have an early morning, and probably go to bed earlier as a result.

Sounds like having analogue clocks may be a bad choice for you?

He’s no different to everyone else. Just push through on the for a few days until everyone adjusts.

Friend with the cereal’s dc also AuDHD.

Friend with the cereal’s dc also AuDHD and demand avoidance. Not sure why that posted half written and twice but dog was on me. Only meant to post once.

Is he in slow release melatonin?

As a parent to 5 AuDhd children i can tell you that yes it is that simple! In fact it's easier than it is with my NT child!
I'm fed up of people thinking that AuDhd children can't learn right from wrong or how to follow instructions!

You do know that they’re not all the same though, right?

I hate clock changes. It sucks when you have to deal with school/work being an hour later, you feel like you've put in a full day before the routine gets started and then still have to fit in your whole evening routine into a shorter length of time (before the body clock says it's bedtime and people start getting cranky!)

Of course, technically speaking during holidays it should be easier - just do everything an hour early. Psychologically it still sucks though. We were away when they changed and had our first night out in 5 years. It was awful to be woken after that knowing others were getting an extra hour in bed and we were up by 5am. The other thing is that doing things earlier during the later parts of the day is manageable, but in the morning it can be more of a problem... we were in a hotel and had more than 3 hours to wait before we could go to breakfast. We'd stupidly packed stuff for LO but not us so I was ravenous! Eating the biscuit offer from the tea and coffee station didn't really cut it! Also, tourist places aren't likely to open til 9am so you have a long time to fill before you can start doing these. You end up spending a lot of time wondering round looking at closed places - at least any parks are empty!

We found if we put them to bed 15 min later for four nights it usually resolved its self