Tools · Sleep

Clock Change Sleep Planner: Shift Your Baby’s Bedtime in Four Steps

Free clock change planner. Pick the direction and your usual bedtime to get a four-day plan that moves your baby onto the new time in 15-minute steps.

Which way do the clocks go? Your usual bedtime Baby's age (months)

Pick a direction and your usual bedtime to build the plan.

Four gentle steps suit most families, but a single one-hour jump on the day is a legitimate choice too, especially with an easy sleeper. Expect a few off days either way; the adjustment usually settles within a week.

Why the Direction Matters More Than the Method

When clocks go forward, the new time runs ahead of your baby: a 7pm bedtime now arrives when their body thinks it is 6pm. Bedtime has to move earlier to meet it. When clocks go back, the opposite happens and bedtime has to move later — which is why the same "shift by 15 minutes" advice pushes in opposite directions in spring and autumn.

Getting that backwards is the one mistake that makes the week worse instead of better, because it doubles the gap rather than closing it. The plan below picks the direction for you; the only thing to hold onto is that the whole day moves, not just the evening.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I start before the change or just deal with it after?

Before is easier if you have the days, because you arrive already adjusted and the change day is unremarkable. If you have forgotten until the morning of, the same 15-minute steps work afterwards — it just takes the same four days on the other side of the change.

My baby wakes at 5am after the autumn change. What helps?

That is the expected complaint: the clock moved back but the body did not, so the usual 6am wake now reads as 5am. Hold the new bedtime rather than pushing it later out of desperation, keep the room dark until a reasonable hour, and it usually resolves in under a week.

Does this apply to naps too?

Yes, and skipping them is the common reason a careful plan still goes wrong. If naps stay on the old time while bedtime moves, the last wake window absorbs the entire shift and you get an overtired child at exactly the moment you were trying to protect.