Are you putting your kids to bed at the usual time on sunday night or a bit later bearing in mind the clocks changing sat night?

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

Basically the number of hours they sleep will be normal on sat night but the clock will say they woke a bit later SO going to bed at the usual time on sunday night is going to be the equivalent (to them) of going to bed an hour earlier than usual.

Do any of you have a tried and tested method that works>

I'm inlcined to put them to bed a bit later. DH disagrees.

I do half an hour later or earlier when the clocks go forward or back

But... if you put them to bed late tonight... they may wake up later tomorrow. Which will also be an hour later than usual. Then if you put them to bed at usual time on Sun, they may not be tired.

Aaaaaah. This does my head in.

I'm a bit confused.

Say (for the sake of argument) that they need 12 hours sleep and normally go to bed at 7 and get up at 7.

If they go to bed at 7 on Saturday and get up at 7 on Sunday they'll have had only 11 hours sleep and may be tired and cranky.

If they go to bed at 7 on Saturday and get up at 8 on Sunday they'll have had their 12 hours sleep but will be getting up "late".

But you want to put them to bed at (say) 8 on Saturday -- so they'll either be getting up at 7 after only 10 hours sleep or sleeping until 9 to get their normal 12 hours?

I don't think there is a problem this time of year-if you have early risers and they usually wake at 6am , they will wake at 7am which is lovely! The problem comes in October when they wake at 5am!

But we dont go to bed at exactly the same time every night, so dont wory too much, it'll all even out!
I'm putting mine to bed at 7pm as usual and they will wake up when they wake up! (once they've had enough sleep I presume )

You need to put them to bed earlier, not later. I think?

P&L - I think OP is thinking of the SUNDAY night problem more than anything. That they will be going to bed at 7pm on Sunday night but may not be tired because it's really only 6pm. I think.

Just do something extra 'energy using up' on the Sunday! Have a mad sports day at home with loads of running about and then they'll be tired enough to go to bed that night!

Oh, I see (rereads original post). Yes, she did say that .

I'd just give them a really tiring day on Sunday, probably.

Yes, for instance I will prob not let dd2 have her usual nap on Sunday, she can go straight through and get really knackered!

I'll just wing it - aim for 7 as usual but if they are lively probably let them have a longer bath/play with toys in the bedroom for longer/have more stories, etc.

Am so looking forward to it as ds1 is such an early riser and getting to 7 is fantasy at the mo!

You need to put them to bed earlier tonight, not later!!! We lose an hour's sleep tonight, not gain one!!!

Anna -- she's talking about Sunday night, not tonight (I made the same mistake).

I'll try to stretch them out a bit ... just in case they wake at some ridiculous hour

I think I'm more worried about putting them to bed at their usual 7pm (which is actually 6pm according to their body clocks) and them waking after 2-3 hours wide awake. Similar to if we go to bed too early, we can't get to sleep or are wide awake for ages in the middle of the night.