Spring has arrived in these latitudes (at least in the calendar) and it is time to adapt the clock. In the early morning of Saturday to Sunday, summer time enters into force, so at 2:00 it will be 3:00. If the time change produces effects on all people, they may be more visible in children, so try to minimize them as much as possible. Therefore, we are going to try that the time change does not catch our children off guard.
In this way, we will make the transition smoother and that there are no small mismatches of this change, especially visible in sleep disorders, attention problems, irritability, anger, discouragement, fatigue ... As this time change involves sleeping a less time and the night comes later, the little ones can see their biorhythms affected.
Among the tips to cope with the time change, is to respect the schedules that you keep at home during the year for daily routines, especially dinner and bedtime.
Of course, talk to the kids about the time change and explaining the reasons why it takes place (even if it costs us even the elders to understand them) will help them understand why it is more daytime and they already have to have dinner, for example. Or why when it is time to get up it is night.
All this change will require an adaptation effort also on our part and if we have breakfast and dinner as a family on the weekend, try to keep those schedules too and continue with the routine during the week, when school starts, especially at night (in the morning we are already supposed to do so if we don't want to be late ).
Consider that, according to the group specialized in sleep of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP), children are the group that most notice the effects and its biological clock can take several days, and even a week, to adapt to the new schedule .
So, although the body may not ask for it, we have to try to have dinner at the usual time and for the children to go to bed at their time. It will cost them more to fall asleep and get up these days, so that patience to reassure them at night (more than ever, the idea of reading a story will be effective) and to get up.
In addition, pediatricians point out that we can prepare children a few days before making a slow and progressive adaptation to the new schedule. If we start today, we can advance about 15-20 minutes for dinner and sleep, and tomorrow another 15 or 20 minutes, including breakfast time, lunch ...
In a few days, at most in a week, everything returns to normal and we will also have more hours to enjoy the afternoons (when the cold decides to leave us in these latitudes ...). So, remember, The time is changed early in the morning, so that you and our children are not caught off guard!
