Tips for Children to Help Parents Adjust to the Time Change
Let’s face it…they need our help
The old saying “fall back and spring forward” has come to be dreaded for our parents, but somehow it is that time of year again. Time flies, especially if your adult has thrown their Apple watch at the wall in frustration. We’re here with tips to make that transition better.
1. Create a less consistent bedtime routine: Your parents will be exhausted by the tradition started by Benjamin Franklin as a way to use fewer candles. Mix it up! Prolong the bedtime routine by forty minutes one night, refuse to eat dinner until 9 pm one night, and wake up at exactly 3 am on another to stand by your parent’s bed with ghost eyes until they wake up and acknowledge you.
2. Encourage screen time before bed: bring your parents their phones as they tuck you in. If you are literate, google the phrase “Revenge Bedtime Procrastination” in the browser before you do so.
3. Help parents develop unhealthy sleep associations: It’s important to create associations that can be with your parent throughout the night so they can self-agitate, like inconsistently dripping water in the bathroom sink. Sharing mantras can be useful, like, “I’m sure college will get cheaper” and “Someone in my class had lice.” Creating a mental link between their bed and not sleeping will help them sleep at places throughout the day, like their desk or the parking lot at daycare.
4. Randomize parental circadian rhythms: This sounds more technical than it needs to be! We suggest adding random bursts of light and darkness throughout the day to turn the body’s internal clock into the human version of the blinking neon 12:00. Watch movies in a dark room at 1 pm and encourage parents to lay down. At 2 am, flip the lights on in their bedroom to ask where your koala stuffy is. In no time at all, your parent will be, as the adults say, confused AF.
5. Move: Hawaii, Arizona, and certain parts of Indiana are probably very nice this time of year!
6. If you can’t move, start with small steps: push your parents to change their sleep routines by 15 or 20 minutes each night for a week leading up to the time change. Continue this for between two weeks and two years until they are used to not sleeping at all!
