Tips for changing the time with children

Next Sunday, 25 March, it's that time again: the clock goes forward one hour at 2 am. This throws many children off their rhythm. How you can help them.

On a Sunday night, it's suddenly 3 a.m. instead of 2 a.m. The missing hour is often not without consequences: The child wants to sleep their usual number of hours and gets up an hour later in the morning - according to the clock. In the evening, they are not yet tired at their usual bedtime. If they go to bed later, they will not be fully rested in the morning. And so on. Just like a little jet lag.

«All people are basically subject to the same clocks that control our daily rhythm,» says André Dietziker, a psychologist specialising in psychotherapy FSP and head of the Institute for Chronobiology in Hünenberg. «If one of them gets mixed up, it's often difficult to get back into a rhythm.» One external factor is sunlight, according to which we naturally align our sleeping and waking rhythms. «The forced earlier wake-up time has a much greater impact,» says Dietziker.

The time change disrupts children's rhythms

It is our biological and social clocks that are thrown out of sync by the forced shift in rhythm. The biological clock, a kind of «master clock» as Dietziker calls it, controls metabolism, organs and the activity of individual cells. «Melatonin controls our sleep. Respiratory rate and body temperature drop at night and cortisol triggers waking up,» Dietziker gives a few examples.
If we wake our child from sleep at an unusual time, their body can become confused. «The metabolism may then still be in its regeneration activities,» explains Dietziker. Children then find it difficult to wake up and feel tired after getting up.
Another clock is the so-called social clock. «This refers to daily recurring routines and rituals,» says Dietziker. These include getting up, breakfast, the journey to school, lessons, leisure activities and bedtimes, for example. «Children are highly dependent on such consistent external routines, as they give them a sense of security and safety and promote a fundamental trust in their environment and themselves.» If you change these abruptly, it can lead to stress in the child.

Some children suffer greatly from the stress caused by the time change. Sleep disorders, tiredness and upset can last for a long time. Children are confused because they cannot understand what is happening. On the other hand, according to Dietziker, children have a clear advantage over older people. The young organism can adapt more quickly to the new situation.
Young people, on the other hand, are hit particularly hard by the time change in spring. «Adolescents in puberty are all owls for a few years. They are particularly active in the evening and can't get out of bed in the morning.» With the exception of puberty, when most internal clocks are in sync, the chronotype of a child or adult is entirely individual.
So-called owls are evening people who only reach their peak at a late hour. Larks, on the other hand, go to bed early in the evening and are lively in the morning. «If your children are early risers, they don't mind the lost hour as much, as they are up to speed more quickly in the morning anyway,» says Dietziker.

Setting a good example for the changeover

Above all, the expert advises owl parents to be calm and understanding. «Reacting to the lack of drive and unwillingness with stress and rushing only brings a destructive dynamic into the family morning, which generally doesn't speed things up, but blocks them.»
The innate, typological (in)sensitivity cannot ultimately be changed. In fact, however, the ease or difficulty with which parents themselves deal with the time change plays a major role. The role model applies here: «The well-being and composure of the parents, who are just as out of rhythm, is decisive for the stress level and well-being of the children.»
Parents can mitigate the negative effects with the help of targeted measures. Dietziker recommends, for example, spreading the time change over a few days. «Parents can let their children get up a quarter of an hour earlier.» Bedtime would then be adjusted accordingly. Lamps could also help: «Bright white light helps to increase alertness and energy.» Or you could try something completely unconventional: «Why not make the time change a theme and create a special summertime breakfast?» The whole family can then look forward to it.
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