If your grandfather clock strikes the hour beside a napping grandchild, silence the chime for the length of the nap and leave the clock running. Most tall clocks have a small lever at the dial for exactly this. Don’t count on the automatic night setting, because it only covers the night. Put the nap in the room furthest from the clock, shut the doors in between, and run a quiet white noise machine near the crib. The steady tick is rarely the problem. The sudden strike is, and noon is the worst of them.
Why the chime wakes a baby who slept through lunch
My clock stands in the front hall, and I stopped hearing it years ago. The first time a grandchild napped in the little bedroom off that hall, the clock struck two and the baby woke up howling.
A baby can sleep through a whole family talking over lunch and still wake to one chime. A room full of voices is a steady sound. A clock striking is a sudden one, arriving out of quiet.
Babies also spend a lot of their sleep close to the surface. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ page on the phases of sleep says a newborn’s sleep is “about equally divided” between REM, or active, sleep and non-REM sleep, and that only in the deep stages may the baby “be more difficult to awake.” Betteroo’s explanation of how those short cycles turn over puts a newborn cycle at about 50 to 60 minutes and says babies fully rouse between cycles.
Now think about what a clock does. It strikes every hour, and a quarter-chiming clock plays every fifteen minutes. A nap that lasts an hour and a half will meet the clock at least once, and there is a fair chance the baby is in light sleep when it does. A visiting baby has had no time to get used to the sound.
Find the silent lever before the baby arrives
You don’t have to stop the clock. An article at Hunker on setting a grandfather clock’s time and chime explains that “most grandfather clocks include a small manual lever that will quiet your chimes” until you flip it back. To find it, the article says to open the access door and “look for a protruding lever somewhere near either the 3 or 9 o’clock positions,” often with a label such as “silent.”
Three things I’d add from my own hall:
- Find it the day before. Hunting for a lever with a baby asleep ten feet away is no fun.
- Move it all the way. The clock seller Premier Clocks, in its grandfather clock troubleshooting guide, lists a lever left “halfway between two chime melody positions” as a reason a clock won’t chime properly later. Slide it fully to silent, and fully back afterwards.
- Check your own model. Clocks differ. If yours has no lever, or it is an antique you’re nervous about, read the owner’s manual or ask a clock repairer before you touch anything inside the case.
The night setting will not save a daytime nap
Many newer clocks have an automatic night shut-off, and grandparents often assume that takes care of it. It doesn’t cover naps. The Clock Depot, a clock retailer, describes clocks with night-time shutoff as ones that “automatically turn off the chimes after 10:00 PM,” with the chiming resuming after 7:00 AM.
Those hours suit a grown-up’s night, and a baby keeps different ones:
- A baby who goes to bed at seven has three hours of chiming to sleep through before ten.
- Every nap falls in the daytime, when the chime is on.
Use the manual silent setting for naps and from the baby’s bedtime onward.
Choose the nap room with your ears
Sound travels through a house in ways you stop noticing when you live there. Before the visit, stand in each possible nap room with the door shut while the clock strikes. A hall clock tends to carry up a stairwell and through any door that faces it. A back bedroom behind two closed doors may hardly hear it.
Pick the quietest safe spot for the travel crib. If that leaves the baby in a room you can’t hear from the kitchen, borrow the parents’ monitor. My post on baby sleep at grandma’s house covers setting up the crib and darkening the room, and the safe sleep rules for grandparents apply to every one of those rooms.
Cover what’s left with low white noise
Even with the chime off, a house has other sudden sounds: the mail slot, the dog, the ice maker. A steady hum near the crib takes the edge off them. I keep a Yogasleep Dohm Classic in the nap room, which makes its sound with a real fan.
Keep it quiet and keep it away from the baby. Children’s National Hospital’s article on baby sound machines and hearing says “the AAP recommends keeping the volume below 50 decibels (dB), similar to a soft conversation,” and warns that “many sound machines exceed this limit at their highest volume setting.” It also says to keep the machine away from the crib. So don’t try to drown out the clock with volume. Turn off the chime and let a low hum handle the smaller noises.
Ask the parents how they use theirs at home, and copy that. Betteroo’s guide to setting the volume and distance safely suggests placing the machine at least seven feet from the crib and using the lowest volume that still masks background sound.
Know the nap times before the clock strikes
Betteroo builds an age-based sleep plan the parents can share with Grandma, so you know when to quiet the house and when to let it ring.
Take the sleep quiz →
Leave the tick alone
Grandparents sometimes ask whether to stop the pendulum as well. In my experience there’s no need. The tick is soft and regular, and a regular sound is the kind a sleeping baby ignores.
Even when I have a baby two days a week, I silence the chime for naps, because a nap cut short at my house makes for a hard evening at theirs. For those regular days, whose nap rules win has a list of what should match between the two houses and what can differ.
When the grandchild is old enough to love the clock
Around two, the clock becomes the most interesting thing in the house. Give the child a job: a four-year-old can be the one who tells Grandma “it’s time to make the clock quiet” before a younger sibling’s nap. Keep the case door locked and the key out of reach, since weights and a pendulum are not for small hands. I also have my clock fastened to the wall behind it, as I would any tall piece of furniture in a house where a toddler climbs.
FAQ: chiming clocks and sleeping grandchildren
Will a grandfather clock wake a sleeping baby?
It can, especially a visiting baby who isn’t used to it. The hourly strike is a sudden sound, and babies spend much of their sleep in a light stage. Silencing the chime during naps removes the risk.
How do I turn off a grandfather clock’s chime without stopping the clock?
Most have a small lever near the 3 or 9 on the dial, reached through the access door, with a “silent” position. The clock keeps time while the chime is off. Check your own model’s manual if you can’t find it.
Does the automatic night shut-off cover naps?
No. On clocks that have it, the chime typically goes quiet from about 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Naps and a baby’s early bedtime fall outside those hours, so use the manual silent setting.
Is the ticking bad for a baby’s sleep?
Usually not. The tick is quiet and steady. It’s the sudden chime and strike that tend to wake a child.
