Voice Over 0:04
You’re listening to the slumber party podcast with your host, Amanda Jewson, a mom of two girls, a child and infant sleep expert and general sleep lover. If you’re a tired parent who is desperate for answers, or just someone who loves sleep, This podcast was created just for you. Each episode is packed full of tips and tricks to help you maintain your sanity, as well as your social life during the early stages of parenthood. So grab your headphones, it’s time to get comfy!
Amanda 0:39
Hi, everyone, it is Amanda Jewson. And this is a very special episode as a slumber party podcast because this is the episode that brings our podcast into a weekly rotation. And we are here to talk to you today about daylight savings time. It’s coming up this year, I believe it’s March 14. And although this one isn’t so scary, a lot of my clients worry about it. So we’re gonna talk about to give you some strategies you can start today you can start date up, it’s up to you. And I’m super excited because we’re joined today by my husband, Brad. Welcome, Brad.
Brad 1:23
Thank you for having me.
Amanda 1:26
All the way from his office right there. I mostly hate coming on these podcasts and talking to myself. I I hate it. It’s not as exciting. But also I thought it might be interesting to kind of talk to you, Brad about our experiences with daylight savings, and I really never found it that bad. Like, do you have any sort of when you hear the daylight savings in our kids sleep? Like are you ever freaked out about that?
Brad 1:59
It was worse when they were like super little and getting up at like five because the difference between 5am and 4am is rough. Yeah. Now, it’s not such a big deal. Yeah,
Amanda 2:11
They’re they’re pretty good. I mean, I can’t. This is actually Well, that’s actually a good point. Because we’re spring forwarding, which means we actually go to bed earlier. So this is Yeah, I know. Like, I can see Brad doing the math in his head. But it’s I I still I’ve been doing this work for four years now. And every time I panic, I’m like, Am I giving the right advice and then I do the work. But okay. So for spring forwarding, let’s see your child’s bed is seven o’clock now. Okay. at eight o’clock next week. So next week, eight o’clock will feel like seven. Okay, which means that 6pm next week is seven. Sorry, see, I’m already missing it up. So 6pm this week will be 7pm next week. Does that make sense? Brad? Yeah. Okay, good. got there. I got there. I am an expert with the podcast. But yes. So if we think about 6pm this week, is 7pm. Next week, next week, when it is 7pm. It will feel like 6pm in your child’s body. Are you with me Brad?
Brad 3:31
I follow 100%.
Amanda 3:32
Okay, good.Okay, I need need confirmation that I’m doing this right. See, this is what I do every daylight savings. So that really is our biggest concern there. Because humans don’t really like to go to bed early. We can go to bed later. But our bodies don’t like to go to bed early. Actually, you’re such a good guest for this Brad. Because you’re often in different time zones. Right? Like, tell me like, do you struggle with going to bed early, late? All those things? Like, I know you sometimes you take a sleeping pill to help on that first night. But like, Is it hard to adjust?
Brad 4:14
It isn’t it isn’t like, with my work, I work long hours. So like you do spend a lot of time awake. It can be rough for the first little while but you know, I get used to it fairly quickly. I also like often experience like when I’m going into different time zones, lots of times it’s like big, long international flights. I mean, not lately, obviously. But big long international flights. So it’s like you take a red eye and you get there and you’re kind of because I sleep in so many different places. I’m pretty good at just falling asleep kind of wherever. So yeah, yeah.
Amanda 4:53
Yeah. And I, I Well, yeah, I know. Like when you get back like sometimes your body clock is a little like messed up. And I should mention Brad is in mining. So he travels literally all over the world not so much lately, but within Canada and then to new timezones. But when when we asked the human body to go to bed earlier, it tends to be harder for us to fall asleep, it means that your child’s naptime will be a little bit earlier, they may not feel tired yet or their their body clocks may not be on on the schedule that you would like them to be. So I think honestly, that’s the worst of it. This is this is really and truly, if you have an early riser, this is your like sleeping day, right? Because your 6am or your 5am weaker will now be a 6am or a 7am weaker, which is awesome. And we had an early riser for a long time.
Brad 5:53
We did Yes.
Amanda 5:58
Brad and I both appreciate our sleep. And our first daughter was was a early riser for a number of years. I mean, it’s hard to say if it was a phase, she also had sleep apnea, which I think really did contribute to those early weights and having those wrestles sleeps, but it is a lot better. So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Okay, so what do you do? What do you do to kind of manage this? Number one, I want you to just be realistic with what’s possible, it’s going to take time for your your child’s body clock to adjust. It’s not really feasible to be like, okay, it’s three days fix it, if your child is used to going to bed at a certain time, it will take some time to adjust in a big thing that you can tries to you know, do this split the difference role. So that means, you know, so if we’re going if we’re in the new time, okay, so daylight savings has happened. And we know that their bed time, the the time that they’re used to going to bed, let’s say it’s 7pm, well, we know that 7pm feeling won’t be till 8pm. So split the difference and put them to bed at 730 for a little while, maybe about a week or two, and then you can try pulling it back even a little bit. You can also try waking your child up a little bit earlier as well. Okay to make sure that they are. So you know, if you have that 5am weaker, you might need to wake them up at 5am new time to make sure that they’re ready for bed. As much as that sucks. But that’s also an option, it just makes sure that they’re tired enough they’ve accumulated enough sleep pressure or tiredness to fall asleep at night. Those are your options. Another big thing is, Oh, this is so good that you’re on the podcast too broad, because right behind you is our like blackout blinds that we have in every bedroom of our house. Even our offices, because we hate light. That’s not true. But we need to start prepping for more sunlight. So you’re probably experiencing where you are later evenings and more sun in the morning, which is very exciting. In a I was almost said post pandemic but we’re not post pandemic like almost post pandemic world. However, with the springtime comes changes in light. And that can also drive those early mornings that everyone hates so much that flood my inbox every year. So, like, Brad, do you have any comments on light? Like Have you ever been in a sleep situation that has like really, really sucked with light? Like you’ve been in places where it’s like light for a very, very long time? Right?
Brad 8:55
Yeah, like a lot of a lot of the places where I’m, where I am is that they’re used to dealing with night shifts. So like even if you’re looking at a place like the High Arctic where you have super long days, they’ve set things up so that people can make their lights their rooms really dark. One of the things that I find traveling is hotel rooms are like awful for just like random blue LEDs on whatever stupid alarm clock so like you know, just kind of taking the time five minutes before I know I haven’t done this but it is a good idea that people who frequent hotel rooms a lot will just travel with like black electrical tape and just like cover up all those dumb LEDs. Because, like if you wake them dumb Why does an alarm clock need a bright red LED like it just doesn’t? Anyway, so But yeah, like, everyone’s had that experience in a hotel room, right? Like he had blackout blinds and then there’s just LEDs everywhere. So that’s that’s one thing that I find if I’m too lazy And then I’ll just wake up at three and 4am with irritating light like that.
Amanda 10:06
It’s Yeah, and that’s a great discuss, like I I’m so interested, like, people who are in the hotel industry or for that matter, are making baby sleep products really need to hire a sleep expert in and talk about how can we create spaces for the best possible sleep because you’re totally right. I don’t know how many hotels we’ve been to together where there’s like a million electronics with blue lights blaring. And to be honest, you’re not going to notice it that night. But you will notice it at three o’clock in the morning. When you wake up, you have less melatonin production. These lights stimulate sunlight, or like your brain thinks it’s sunlight. So anything blue LED white, anything that is bothering you in the middle of the night, you’ll know what it is just go in and plug it. And the same goes for these BBC products. Like there is a very popular BBC product that I won’t mention by its name. That lit well Brad, you hit the nail on the head. Do you remember when we bought that okay to wait clock for Winnie. We won’t use the name but we bought it and she started in it was just to help solve her early mornings. And then she was getting up like four or five times a night. And you were like, I think it’s too bright. Like I think this light is too bright. And like two years later, all of this research came out about specifically light that is blue, keeping people up and messing with melatonin production and stimulating the sun. And then as soon as we removed the light, everything was fine.
Brad 11:48
I crushed that one.
Amanda 11:49
You did crush that one that you did crush. You crushed it. I just remember you being like, get that out of here. And I’m like yeah, but it works. But it didn’t work. That’s why I always recommend the hatch baby rest. They don’t pay me I wish they would. But the hatch baby rest does have sleep safe late. Sleep safe flight is yellow, orange, red, you can have those on overnight and not not have it be a problem. Um, yes. So first things first, you need to invest into some blackout blinds like Brad has behind him if you’re watching this on the video. But like even if you’re looking at Brad’s screen, you’ll see that there’s light leaks around the side. And that’s really normal, you might need to go a step further and put some garbage bags on behind that as well. The garbage bags, you know, two layers cheap and cheerful and very effective in keeping up the light. So you have those two layers of garbage rates, obviously, you don’t want them in there. If your children can grab them or playing with them. And it’s an unsafe situation, you obviously don’t want that. You may want to look at something like a grow blind that goes suction cups to your windows, I have heard that the suction cups aren’t all that great. You might want to invest in those of the 3am Velcro, that can help. Yeah, the command hooks, the Velcro really works well on the side. We did that for a while. Um, yeah, so those that can really help because with it, yes, it doesn’t have to do exactly with daylight savings. But there is more sun coming, when we spring forward, we need to be ready for that. And that just means more of an issue to have your child wake up earlier. And then you’re going to be really annoyed and then email me about it. So so do that. do that now. Awesome. So I feel like this is a short one. So you’re gonna let’s go over this again, going to bed earlier sucks. Your daytime body clock will be different. So you’re going to split the difference. So if we’re talking like new time, so next week, we know that 8pm will feel like if your child bedtime right now is 7pm 8pm is going to be when they feel like going to sleep. That’s a long time for your child to be awake for most of you. So let’s Let’s aim for a 730 bedtime for a week. And then you can move back to seven as they get used to that new time. And really, it’s just a little bit of a waiting game. We are dealing with humans, and it’ll be harder for us to fall asleep. Like every every spring forward. It’s harder for me to go to bed when I should go to bed because I’m used to going to bed later. And your babies are the same. Sorry, Brad, what did you want to say?
Brad 14:49
I was just gonna say like, it can also be an opportunity, right? If you’re like, oh, maybe the kid can go to bed a little bit later and we would mind a kid that arises a little bit later. Like You say like, wow, this is actually really effective time that we can transition and make that change.
Amanda 15:06
I yeah. Look at you. So positive fraud. That’s a really good point. And yeah, I’ve had a lot of people messaged me on instagram this week, and say like, Can we do nothing? And I’m like, Yes. And honestly, I think every year we do do nothing. Which is, I hate, I hate to admit that. But kids are pretty adaptable. And you know, for the most part, if you keep to their times, like they’ll adjust, you know, you could totally ignore this podcast and have your kids just do what they’re normally doing, and hopefully get that later time. I think the issue, Brad, that, you know, you’re not quite aware of yet. Because you are a baby sleep coach.
Brad 15:51
I don’t know. I’ve listened to a lot of baby sleep stuff. I’m pretty sure I can do it.
Amanda 15:56
It’s true! Brand and I shared an office for two years. And I 1,000% could not do your job. But I think you could do mine.
Brad 16:06
No, I don’t think I can, but I can I can fake it for a little bit.
Amanda 16:10
You could fake it, you can see the right words. So what what what will normally happen in the spring is that our body clock shifts a little bit earlier anyway, which sucks because of the sun. So like, from April to July, when people just say To hell with it. All of my inbox is full of early morning requests. And it’s just because we’re all waking up early. Like, Brad, I do not wake up early, right. Like
Brad 16:44
You don’t like to wake up early.
Amanda 16:46
I can’t but I can in the summer, because their son and we feel good. And so our kids have the same sort of thing. So if we do have that later bedtime, sometimes kids don’t continue the later sleep. That’s that would obviously be the only risk.
Brad 17:04
So it’s agreed, you’re getting up every day in the summer?
Amanda 17:07
You’re out of your mind. You’re out of your mind. I could sleep in the sun. Till like 12 or 11 every day. I could. Okay, anything else you want to say Brad?
Brad 17:22
When do we talk about stamps.com?
Amanda 17:23
*laughter*
Brad 17:23
This is my first podcast.
Which underwear do you sell?
Amanda 17:34
Well, this is this is a very small operation. Brad. I I don’t have those American companies sponsoring me yet. But anytime soon.
Brad 17:50
Okay.
Amanda 17:50
Also hearing our children?
Brad 17:53
I was wondering which one they were going to
Amanda 17:55
Or which one I know. Should we take a bet o who they’re going to come in? Or do you think they will actually leave us alone? Because they hear us talking? Like, do they think that that we’re on calls?
Brad 18:06
Hard to say.
Amanda 18:08
It’s hard to say I wish they I wish they would come in so we could like make it a bet but I think that they’re actually doing the right thing. Look at us. Okay, well, that’s it guys. 17 minutes. This one is cheap and cheerful. Good luck with all your daylight savings things. If you need more tips and tricks, you can head over to babysbestsleep.com/blog for blogs. Head over to instagram.com/babysbestsleep. I have a whole shareable saveable gallery with these tips that I just talked about that you can save and hold on to. And obviously you’re here on the podcast. If everything is still going to crap, you can book a call with any one of our team at babysbestsleep.com and we’d be happy to do a free discovery call to see what’s going on. And if you need us, we’ll tell you and if you don’t, we’ll tell you that too. All right. Have a good one everyone. Thanks, Brad!
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