AIBU to want to go back in time and kill the person who invented daylight saving?!

[PurplePetalPip]

We were finally getting somewhere with our 14 month olds sleep, was going through until 5 or 5:30 but this was after months of multiple wake ups. But now we are on 4am wake ups after the clocks went back and I just want to scream. My attempts to gradually move bedtime later before Sunday have been fruitless. Now sat on the sofa with DS having had 9 hours sleep and me about 6 (which I know isn't that bad but it's on the back of 14 months of sleep deprivation and to be honest I'm just permanently exhausted now).

If I stick to normal routine, I'm assuming things will naturally adjust but actually I don't hold out much hope as DS just seems to think sleep is for the weak. No real reason for this post I just need to vent!

Surely this is the real time though? Daylight savings is in the summer. This is GMT. If we get rid of BST and just stay on GMT that would solve it.

I was lucky. Clocks changing never affected mine. Just put them to bed when they were tired.

I agree GMT is the "real" time but must also be daylight saving? Doesn't make sense for BST to be daylight saving as there's plenty of daylight from April to October. It's the winter that we need to save the daylight into the most useful time of day

I don't really see it that way. Babies adapt, as we all do, within a few days.

Hugs. The first autumn clock change after DS was born he had us up at 3:45. I promise it does get better

I don't understand why we don't put them back half hour and leave it at that forever.

It was daylight from 3am in summer and people found it difficult to sleep past 5-6am. Many workplaces moved starting time an hour earlier to be in sync with actual daylight hours. So office hours were 8-4 instead of 9-5. It really was not popular at all.

That's a good idea, split the difference and leave it at that!

It's robbing Peter to pay Paul anyway.
One of the arguments for clock change is because in Scotland in depth of winter (December/January) there's only just under 8 hours daylight so the clocks changing means it's between just after 8am -4pm. It allows children to go to school more safely in daylight and primary children can get home in daylight. But many secondary children who have longer journeys and don't get home until about 4.30 are still coming home in the dark. And everyone comes home from work in the dark so I'm not convinced about the safety argument!

@JemimaPiddleDick and others... people always say it would be dark at half nine in the morning if the clocks didn't change or similar, but to clarify, if we got rid of daylight savings, there would be no change to the timings in the winter. That is our default / correct time. The change would be in the summer, when it would get light earlier and dark earlier. Daylight savings was introduced in order to ensure people used less energy in summer evenings because it was light longer. It's to do with summer, not winter.

I was up just after 4 to use the bathroom (pregnant), finally drifted off just as DS woke at 5🤦🏼‍♀️ I'm exhausted and it already feels like it's afternoon...
We have a Halloween party tonight and DS doesn't nap anymore so it's gonna be a nightmare i reckon but we'll go anyway.
Moving his bed time back has not helped us yet...it did the opposite and got him up half an hour earlier than usual! (He usually wakes 6:30, so he got up at 6 body clock time when it was really 5). He's already shattered!

Agree with you there and my youngest is 8. She got up Sunday and this morning at some insanely early hours. Daylight saving serves no purpose nowadays and there have been talks about the benefits of removing it. However, there's no political benefit in pushing this through parliment so the change won't happen.

I take your point re being firm (and generally I do bring 5mo DS into bed or make 2yo DD go back) but the issue is if they’re being really disruptive. If DS is screaming I’m keen to get him downstairs to avoid the risk of him waking DD (and DH, as we alternate early mornings so each of us can get a decent stretch rather than us both being sleep deprived). Or if DD keeps coming into our room, there’s a risk she’ll stir the baby which I really don’t need!

Once DS is old enough to be out of our room and past the point of being a screaming baby then hopefully things will be different, but that’s my logic for decamping to the sofa with them at 5am at the moment…

@Dox9 i see. I’ve always been in favour of changing it but I suppose light at 3am is a bit early. But the office thing is a separate issue, that could have been stopped without go back on the time
I think @GeorgeA12 is right. Let’s split the difference at half an hour

@Wigollia to clarify - we did that for approx half an hour, poor thing was trying to get back to sleep but kept coughing herself awake. Gave that up around 4.30 at which point she obviously thought it was 5.30 and was wide awake (her usual wakeup time - nothing we can do about that, trust me I have TRIED). She then came and watched cartoons on the ipad in our bed (low volume) while I was at least horizontal, until 5.10 when I thought I would leave DH to get some actual sleep as it was his turn for the lie-in. So we're not completely bonkers. But unfortunately, despite what many people seem to think, not all kids have it in them to sleep 12 hours overnight - mine has never done more than 9.5 in her life, and no amount of repeating 'go back to bed' will change that (long mornings spent trying). So mornings that start at times beginning with 5 are just a fact of life (mornings that start at times beginning with 3 less so, thank god, but I would definitely ditch daylight savings and suggest we all just get some blackout curtains if people don't like it being light at 3am, rather than deal with this).

Moving dinner time seemed to be the reset button for DS.
Try and make dinner as late as possible, and see if that keeps him asleep until a slightly more reasonable time.
Good luck. He will get to the point where you can sleep longer.

What about a 14 month old who climbs all over the bed then tries to catapult himself off said bed multiple times? As much as I'd love to stay in bed with him it's just impossible and leads to DP not getting any sleep either. At least downstairs I can have a cup of tea and sit while he plays/watches cartoons. I'm not sleeping either way!

Daylight saving serves no purpose nowadays and there have been talks about the benefits of removing it.

Everytear there is a spike in road traffic deaths the morning after the clocks change in March. Also cardiac arrests. Sastically mornings are more dangerous than afternoons so lighter mornings are safer. * *

5am starts here. How's everyone getting on?

Unfortunately this was us a year ago and DD never did adjust until about August no joke. And now the clocks have set her off again! I too am just resigned to the fact that I am now permanently tired.

4:30 this morning... I'm taking it as an improvement on yesterday's 4am!

@PurplePetalPip are you just keeping the same routine in the day and hoping they'll adjust? I have gone back to giving 9 month old a longer (1hour) nap in morning 9am-10am as she's crazed by 9! I'm stretching that first awake window to try and sort early waking. Dunno if it's right thing to do?

@sunflowerandivy well we have only recently dropped the morning nap so I did consider reinstating it as it's a long stretch until lunch but that felt like going backwards. So yes, I'm just keeping our routine and hoping he will adjust over the week. He's 14 months though so probably a bit easier to keep occupied and awake than your little one.

He was at nursery yesterday and grandparents today anyway while I work so they are the poor ones having to keep him awake!

@sunflowerandivy and yes I think you're doing the right thing though I've not got sleep mastered yet by any means! Mine was still on an hour nap in the morning at nine months but he's quite high sleep needs. But yes if you let them nap too early/long they will wake early and use the nap to catch up on sleep I believe.

5.10 this morning, so a dramatic improvement on 3.45! We are just ploughing through our day and putting her down at 8 as per usual (so I guess it's been feeling like 9). But to be honest, by the time we get her back from nursery, fed etc we don't have time to do it much earlier. Hopefully this will help us push through the pain. Though much easier to power on through overtiredness with a toddler than a baby, can't remember what we did when she was tiny but I imagine it was a nightmare.

Our Halloween party last night ended up doing us a favour. He wasn't in bed until 19:20 (so half an hour after he usually goes - 90 minutes if you count the time change - and that despite being up at 5), sleeping by 19:30 and then got up at 6.

We're hoping that's going to help us sort his sleep now. So we're going to do a strict 18:45 bed time now and hoping the 6am will stay with us!

Good luck with everyone else getting back into a routine!