The clocks go back on 25 October. Start your child's bedtime shift this week

At 2am on Sunday 25 October the clocks go back an hour. Adults get an extra hour in bed. A two-year-old does not read the clock. If yours wakes at 6:30 now, on that Sunday they will be up at 5:30.

You can move their body clock ahead of the change, but it has to go slowly, which is why the time to start is this week.

Why small children do not take the extra hour

The Millpond Sleep Clinic, a children's sleep clinic, puts it plainly: babies and young children rarely add an extra hour of sleep. Their day starts too early instead, and they are overtired by the afternoon. The clinic also points out that many babies and toddlers are early risers by temperament, which makes the autumn change harder for them.

Fifteen minutes later, every three nights

Millpond's advice is to start 10 to 12 days before the change and move bedtime 15 minutes later every three nights. For a child who goes to bed at 7:00, that looks like this:

• Tuesday 13 October: 7:15
• Friday 16 October: 7:30
• Monday 19 October: 7:45
• Thursday 22 October: 8:00
• Sunday 25 October: the clocks go back, and 8:00 is 7:00 again

The pace matters. The clinic warns against moving bedtime every night: the morning wake-up needs time to catch up, and a child pushed too fast may still wake early, get overtired and then fight the new bedtime. Expect them to wake at the usual time for the first few days.

Move the rest of the day with it

Bedtime is only one of the cues. Millpond says to shift naps, meals and milk feeds later along with it, and dinner and the bedtime story too. If tea stays at five while bed moves to eight, you have built a long, hungry evening.

Use the light

Get them outside in the afternoon. Daylight then helps a child stay awake a little longer, which is what the later bedtime needs. In the hour before bed, keep the lights low.

Mornings are the other half. They get lighter after the change, so a blackout blind earns its keep. Once the clocks have moved, the Sleep Charity suggests at least 20 minutes outdoors each morning, cloudy days included.

If they wake early anyway

Millpond suggests a lamp on a timer in the bedroom. Set it to come on 15 minutes after their current wake-up time and ask them to stay in bed until it does. You may have to sit with them the first few mornings. Praise them when they manage it, and move the timer later as bedtime moves.

Pick a time before which the day does not start, six o'clock for example, and keep the room dark until then.

If they are at school

A child who is woken at seven for school cannot sleep later in the morning, so two weeks of later bedtimes would simply cost them sleep. Do the short version. Many English councils, Merton and Tower Hamlets among them, list half-term as 26 to 30 October, which means the first week on the new time has no school run. Check your own school's dates. If they match, start the later bedtimes on Friday 23 October and let the mornings run late through the holiday.

Teenagers are the exception. Their clock already runs late, and Millpond notes that the autumn change often helps them, because the morning comes an hour later by the new time.

If you start late

The Sleep Charity's general advice for the week before the change is to go to bed and get up 10 to 15 minutes later each day. That is faster than Millpond's pace for small children, so expect a few early mornings along the way. And if the weekend arrives with nothing done, the same steps work afterwards: Millpond suggests nudging bedtime later by 5 to 10 minutes every few nights while early waking lasts.

Tonight

Write the four dates and the four bedtimes on a note and put it on the fridge. The first move is on Tuesday.