We can all agree: Daylight savings with kids can be rough with a capital “R.” It happens twice a year and it’s a gut-punch to parents across America — one of those things that you truly don’t understand the magnitude of… until you become a mom or dad.
Here are a few facts about daylight savings time for kids and tips for parents alike.
When is Daylight Savings Time for 2026?
Begins Sunday, March 8, 2026 at 2 AM. It’s the “spring ahead” date which means you’ll need to set your clocks forward one hour before you fall asleep on Saturday, March 8.
Ends Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 2 AM. This is when we “fall back” and you’ll need to set your clocks back one hour before you fall asleep on Saturday, October 31, which happens to be Halloween night (as if you don’t have enough to worry about).
Why Does Daylight Savings Time Exist?
It didn’t just happen overnight. (Get it?) Here’s a brief history on daylight savings time.
How Was the Idea Introduced?
Many credit Benjamin Franklin for daylight saving time, thanks to a letter he wrote for the Journal de Paris in 1784. In the letter, he stated that he was shocked to see the sun rising so early, around 6am, way before most people in France ever viewed daylight. Franklin argued that if people in Paris could wake with this sun, the city would save on the “immense sum” they spent on burning candles in the dark hours of night. Although he didn’t propose moving the clocks, he did suggest some satirical solutions like using cannons to wake people in the morning or limiting the sales of candles.
Another person credited with the idea? George Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist, who wanted more daytime to hunt bugs and proposed shifting the clocks back two hours during summer months. In addition, British builder William Willett (great-great-grandfather to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin!) hated the “waste of daylight” in spring and summer and proposed moving clocks forward by 20 minutes on each of the four Sundays in April and back the other way in September. Parliament rejected his proposal in 1907.
When Was Daylight Savings Time Put Into Action Taken?
Several years later, during World War I, the German government wanted to save coal for fuel so they passed a Daily Saving Times Bill in 1916. England and other countries followed their lead, and in 1918, the United States Congress enacted the Standard Time Act, which created the nation’s five time zones and rolled out daylight saving for part of the year. The move gave factory workers and the war industry an extra hour of natural sunlight, but once the war ended, the daylight savings portion of the law was repealed.
During World War II, the U.S. adopted year-round daylight saving (then known as “war time”) from February 1942 to September 1945. Once the war ended, states were allowed to decide whether or not to keep daylight savings, which, unsurprisingly, led to lots of inconsistencies in local times and chaos in industries that crossed state lines, such as transportation. The government’s solution arrived with the Uniform Time Act of 1966, constructed “to promote the observance of a uniform system of time throughout the United States.”
For states that chose to follow the change, clocks would jump ahead one hour from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. In December 1973, Congress passed a bill to make the daylight savings time permanent and President Nixon signed it into law. Although initially the public embraced the idea, it led to lapses in safety and chaos, so a year later President Gerald Ford signed into law an amendment that returned the nation to standard time, from October 27 through the last Sunday in February 1975.
What’s the Situation Now?
Now that coal is no longer king, daylight savings time doesn’t really save energy anymore. However, people’s feelings about the time change most likely align with where they’re geographically located. The closer to the equator you are, the more likely you’re going to want fewer hours of sunlight.
On the other hand, those farther away will take as much sunlight in the winter as they can get. Around the world, only 1/3 of all countries practice it. There’s been a push for permanent daylight savings, but so far, it’s stayed as is (with the exception of Arizona and Hawaii, two states that do not practice daylight savings).
Tips to Prep Your Kids for Daylight Savings Time
1. Plan Ahead
As the saying goes, the best defense is the best offense. It’s good to have this date on your calendar more than a day or two in advance. Begin pushing bedtime in the direction of the time shift 5 minutes at a time a week or two before. For older children, you adjust bedtime incrementally by 20 minutes, but be sure to ease the transition. An hour change is something fully sleep trained adults even have trouble adjusting too. Give little ones a little more buffer time in the week leading up to it. You can follow the same strategy with naps, pushing the times a bit later to adjust.
2. Blackout Curtains
The time change will affect the amount of light that comes into your little one’s room. Invest in blackout curtains to help easily control their baseline for darkness in the peak years of sleep training.
3. Follow the Sun
Just like you want it to be very dark at night, natural sunlight can help rouse sleepy little ones in the morning. Open the shades and make the room bright when it’s time to get up. The morning sun ways help signal to the brain that the day has begun.
4. Kid-Friendly Alarm Clocks
Pick up an alarm that’s tailor-made for kids who aren’t yet able to tell or read time. They’re absent of sound. They use soft light signals to tell kids when it’s ok to get out of bed or when they should try falling back asleep. At the very least, it’s one way to say “don’t wake up your parents yet!”
5. Stick to Your Routine
Be consistent with your bedtime routine, despite the time changes. Maybe it’s bath, book, bed — and be sure to power down devices at least an hour before bedtime. Blue light from screens on iPads, tablets, cell phones, computers and TVs can make it harder for kids to doze off.
6. Take It Easy
Even if you lean into all the tips and tricks, a daylight savings Sunday is bound to feel “off.” Avoid scheduling hectic plans that will trigger meltdowns. Have a little more quiet time baked into the schedule to give plenty of room and space for your little one to adjust to the transition.
Remember, it’s only a small bump in the sleep journey road and you’ll get back on track. We believe in you — you’ve got this!
