Daylight saving time ends soon. Tips for parents of early risers

With the end of daylight saving time, many look forward to the blissful extra hour of sleep. But for parents of early risers, 'falling back' can mean waking up even earlier.

With the end of daylight saving time approaching, many look forward to the blissful extra hour of sleep. But for parents of early risers, “falling back” can mean waking up even earlier, as kids adjust to their new schedule, turning those extra z’s into a daily struggle.

Daylight saving time will end on Nov. 3 at 2 a.m. local time, prompting most Canadians to turn their clocks back an hour. However, the Yukon, most of Saskatchewan, and some regions of British Columbia and Quebec will remain on standard time.

This schedule change has the potential to impact not only parents’ sleep but also a child’s overall mood, focus and learning throughout the day, explained Dr. Anya McLaren, a pediatric respirologist and sleep medicine physician at McMaster University in Hamilton.

“For young children who have early wake times sometimes, anywhere between 6 a.m. or 7 a.m., when we go into we transition from daylight savings times to standard time, that can impact their wake time,” McLaren told Global News.

“They end up getting up at their usual time for the first few weeks, and if a child wakes at 6 a.m., then they would be getting up at 5 a.m. And this can obviously impact parental sleep.”

Heather Plante, an Alberta-based sleep consultant, explained that during time changes like the “fall back,” parents may notice their young children becoming more clingy, fussy and frustrated, with more frequent crying than usual.

“For babies younger than a year, they may be less co-ordinated and less able to do the things that they used to do. They don’t enjoy the same things that they did before. That’s just a matter of getting them more sleep,” she said.

Even a one-hour time change can be quite challenging for children, Plante said. Patience is key, as it may take a few weeks for kids to fully adjust.