Don’t let the time change mess with your sleep. 3 Solutions to Restore Your Peace of Mind When Daylight Saving Time Ends

The end of Summer time is approaching, which means shorter days and longer nights. According to a survey by Sleep Doctor, 25% of people said the time change has an impact on their sleeping habits. If you’ve had trouble falling or staying asleep during a time change, here are some ways to get your circadian rhythm – the body’s internal alarm clock – back on track.

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How to reset your body’s alarm clock

To promote healthy sleep hygiene and prevent the consequences of sleep deprivation after Daylight Saving Time, consider the following tips.

1. Do not adjust your alarm time immediately after the time change. After a few days to a week, your body will get used to the new time. Instead, consider taking a short 20-minute nap in the afternoon to boost your energy. Long napshowever, may make you feel more sleepy.

2. Avoid alcohol, caffeine and unhealthy meals before bed. These substances cause sleep disturbances that result in you not getting the quality seven to nine hours of sleep you need to maintain your physical and mental health.

3. If you are an early riser, go outside early in the morning to get some light. Light helps you stay more alert during the day and reduces your body’s production Melatoninwhich leads to sleepiness. You can also consider a sunrise alarm clock. It allows natural light into your bedroom to gently wake you up in the morning, just like sunlight would. This is particularly useful when the sun rises later.

How Daylight Saving Time Affects Your Body

Your circadian rhythm is your body’s internal clock that follows a 24-hour cycle. It plays an important role in dictating your Sleep-wake cycleand it is heavily influenced by cues from light and darkness. When Daylight Saving Time begins, your circadian rhythm may be delayed, making you feel sleepier in the morning when it’s still dark and more energetic in the evening when the sun is up longer.

If you’ve ever traveled to a region with a different time zone than you’re used to, you’ve probably experienced a similar disruption to your circadian rhythm, known as jet lag. For example, if you’re traveling from New York to California, where there’s a three-hour time difference, 9 p.m. feels like midnight to your body and you’re much sleepier than usual.

At first glance, a small change to your routine may not seem drastic. However, studies have shown that disruptions caused by daylight saving time can have a significant impact on your sleep hygiene and overall health if you’re not careful.

The consequences of summer time

According to one study, the average person sleeps about 40 minutes less on the Monday after Daylight Saving Time begins. In addition to the feeling of sleepiness, experts have also noted (in more serious cases) an increase in work accidents, heart attacks, mood swings and even car accidents after the switch from winter time (November to March) to daylight saving time. Poor sleep quality and changes in our sleep-wake cycle appear to be the driving factors for these events and are a key argument for experts pushing for the abolition of daylight saving time.

Read more: Why your internal clock keeps you awake at night

The proposed benefits of daylight saving time

On the other hand, there is also research that points to the benefits of observing daylight saving time. While the death toll from car accidents appears to be increasing the day after the switch from standard time to daylight saving time, it could decline in the long term, perhaps in part due to longer daylight hours. For this reason there also seems to be a decrease in crime, as crimes are less likely to occur during daylight hours.

Aside from the direct impact on human health, daylight saving time also promotes lower energy consumption. A 2008 Department of Energy study found that an additional four weeks of daylight saving time saved 1.3 billion kilowatt hours, equivalent to the energy use of 100,000 homes per year.

While experts continue to ponder the pros and cons of Daylight Saving Time and whether we should observe it, there are things you can do in the meantime to combat the negative side effects.