diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/lib/dashboard.ts b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/lib/dashboard.ts
index cb35768f65c78..a487ceef5648e 100644
--- a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/lib/dashboard.ts
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/lib/dashboard.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,11 @@ import { CfnDashboard } from './cloudwatch.generated';
 import { Column, Row } from "./layout";
 import { IWidget } from "./widget";
 
+export enum PeriodOverride {
+  Auto = 'auto',
+  Inherit = 'inherit',
+}
+
 export interface DashboardProps {
   /**
    * Name of the dashboard
@@ -10,6 +15,36 @@ export interface DashboardProps {
    * @default Automatically generated name
    */
   readonly dashboardName?: string;
+
+  /**
+   * The start of the time range to use for each widget on the dashboard.
+   * You can specify start without specifying end to specify a relative time range that ends with the current time.
+   * In this case, the value of start must begin with -P, and you can use M, H, D, W and M as abbreviations for
+   * minutes, hours, days, weeks and months. For example, -PT8H shows the last 8 hours and -P3M shows the last three months.
+   * You can also use start along with an end field, to specify an absolute time range.
+   * When specifying an absolute time range, use the ISO 8601 format. For example, 2018-12-17T06:00:00.000Z.
+   *
+   * @default When the dashboard loads, the start time will be the default time range.
+   */
+  readonly start?: string;
+
+  /**
+   * The end of the time range to use for each widget on the dashboard when the dashboard loads.
+   * If you specify a value for end, you must also specify a value for start.
+   * Specify an absolute time in the ISO 8601 format. For example, 2018-12-17T06:00:00.000Z.
+   *
+   * @default When the dashboard loads, the end date will be the current time.
+   */
+  readonly end?: string;
+
+  /**
+   * Use this field to specify the period for the graphs when the dashboard loads.
+   * Specifying `Auto` causes the period of all graphs on the dashboard to automatically adapt to the time range of the dashboard.
+   * Specifying `Inherit` ensures that the period set for each graph is always obeyed.
+   *
+   * @default Auto
+   */
+  readonly periodOverride?: PeriodOverride;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -33,7 +68,12 @@ export class Dashboard extends Construct {
       dashboardBody: new Token(() => {
         const column = new Column(...this.rows);
         column.position(0, 0);
-        return this.node.stringifyJson({ widgets: column.toJson() });
+        return this.node.stringifyJson({
+          start: props ? props.start : undefined,
+          end: props ? props.end : undefined,
+          periodOverride: props ? props.periodOverride : undefined,
+          widgets: column.toJson(),
+        });
       }).toString()
     });
   }
diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/integ.alarm-and-dashboard.expected.json b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/integ.alarm-and-dashboard.expected.json
index 2a0b5888788c6..71b83bbda96f7 100644
--- a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/integ.alarm-and-dashboard.expected.json
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/integ.alarm-and-dashboard.expected.json
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
           "Fn::Join": [
             "",
             [
-              "{\"widgets\":[{\"type\":\"text\",\"width\":6,\"height\":2,\"x\":0,\"y\":0,\"properties\":{\"markdown\":\"# This is my dashboard\"}},{\"type\":\"text\",\"width\":6,\"height\":2,\"x\":6,\"y\":0,\"properties\":{\"markdown\":\"you like?\"}},{\"type\":\"metric\",\"width\":6,\"height\":6,\"x\":0,\"y\":2,\"properties\":{\"view\":\"timeSeries\",\"title\":\"Messages in queue\",\"region\":\"",
+              "{\"start\":\"-9H\",\"end\":\"2018-12-17T06:00:00.000Z\",\"periodOverride\":\"inherit\",\"widgets\":[{\"type\":\"text\",\"width\":6,\"height\":2,\"x\":0,\"y\":0,\"properties\":{\"markdown\":\"# This is my dashboard\"}},{\"type\":\"text\",\"width\":6,\"height\":2,\"x\":6,\"y\":0,\"properties\":{\"markdown\":\"you like?\"}},{\"type\":\"metric\",\"width\":6,\"height\":6,\"x\":0,\"y\":2,\"properties\":{\"view\":\"timeSeries\",\"title\":\"Messages in queue\",\"region\":\"",
               {
                 "Ref": "AWS::Region"
               },
diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/integ.alarm-and-dashboard.ts b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/integ.alarm-and-dashboard.ts
index ae5a2f6bf3a27..6e70689d86c38 100644
--- a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/integ.alarm-and-dashboard.ts
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/integ.alarm-and-dashboard.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 
 import cdk = require('@aws-cdk/cdk');
 import cloudwatch = require('../lib');
+import { PeriodOverride } from '../lib';
 
 const app = new cdk.App();
 
@@ -25,7 +26,11 @@ const alarm = metric.newAlarm(stack, 'Alarm', {
   datapointsToAlarm: 2,
 });
 
-const dashboard = new cloudwatch.Dashboard(stack, 'Dash');
+const dashboard = new cloudwatch.Dashboard(stack, 'Dash', {
+  start: '-9H',
+  end: '2018-12-17T06:00:00.000Z',
+  periodOverride: PeriodOverride.Inherit
+});
 dashboard.add(
   new cloudwatch.TextWidget({ markdown: '# This is my dashboard' }),
   new cloudwatch.TextWidget({ markdown: 'you like?' }),
diff --git a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/test.dashboard.ts b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/test.dashboard.ts
index 61d3c42324f5a..95ee4d33b1055 100644
--- a/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/test.dashboard.ts
+++ b/packages/@aws-cdk/aws-cloudwatch/test/test.dashboard.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import { expect, haveResource, isSuperObject } from '@aws-cdk/assert';
 import { App, Stack } from '@aws-cdk/cdk';
 import { Test } from 'nodeunit';
-import { Dashboard, GraphWidget, TextWidget } from '../lib';
+import { Dashboard, GraphWidget, PeriodOverride, TextWidget } from '../lib';
 
 export = {
   'widgets in different adds are laid out underneath each other'(test: Test) {
@@ -92,6 +92,34 @@ export = {
     test.done();
   },
 
+  'dashboard body includes non-widget fields'(test: Test) {
+    // GIVEN
+    const stack = new Stack();
+    const dashboard = new Dashboard(stack, 'Dash',
+    {
+      start: '-9H',
+      end: '2018-12-17T06:00:00.000Z',
+      periodOverride: PeriodOverride.Inherit
+    });
+
+    // WHEN
+    dashboard.add(
+      new GraphWidget({ width: 1, height: 1 }) // GraphWidget has internal reference to current region
+    );
+
+    // THEN
+    expect(stack).to(haveResource('AWS::CloudWatch::Dashboard', {
+      DashboardBody: { "Fn::Join": [ "", [
+        "{\"start\":\"-9H\",\"end\":\"2018-12-17T06:00:00.000Z\",\"periodOverride\":\"inherit\",\
+\"widgets\":[{\"type\":\"metric\",\"width\":1,\"height\":1,\"x\":0,\"y\":0,\"properties\":{\"view\":\"timeSeries\",\"region\":\"",
+        { Ref: "AWS::Region" },
+        "\",\"metrics\":[],\"annotations\":{\"horizontal\":[]},\"yAxis\":{\"left\":{\"min\":0},\"right\":{\"min\":0}}}}]}"
+      ]]}
+    }));
+
+    test.done();
+  },
+
   'work around CloudFormation bug'(test: Test) {
     // See: https://github.com/awslabs/aws-cdk/issues/213