Spring Forward Woes: How to Adjust to Daylight Saving

By: Rosemarie Jacob

It’s that time of year again. Daylight saving has snuck up on us, and many cannot fully accept that a little extra sunlight is worth losing a precious hour of sleep.

Although the loss of an hour technically only occurs on one Sunday, the ramifications can last much longer. Your body needs to adjust to going to bed and waking up an hour earlier than it’s used to, and with many Americans already suffering from insomnia and other sleep-related troubles, this switch can be hard.

Combine that with the stress of school and work schedules remaining the same despite your internal clock issues, many people find themselves exhausted for quite a while before their bodies can catch up.

Several remedies to our sleep woes have been proposed throughout the years, some less traditional than others. One of the more extreme suggestions is to pull an all-nighter right before daylight saving. Perhaps you binge a show you discovered about a cutthroat all-girls school in Jordan. It’s fully in Arabic with questionably-translated subtitles. You stay up wide-eyed, watching the gripping tales of backstabbing and marveling at the chic prep school uniforms.

Then you wake up exhausted the next day, but muddle through because at least it’s Sunday. Popping a melatonin at 8 that evening, you promptly pass out at 8:15. After sleeping for 11 hours straight, you can wake up at a crisp 7a.m. and pat yourself on the back for a daylight saving well done.

Don’t have the luxury of going through a full day like a zombie or not interested in the drama behind Middle Eastern high school cliques? Here are some other ideas.

1. New bedtime habits

Create a new special activity that you do every night before getting into bed. Whether it’s preparing a warm beverage or giving yourself a facial massage as you pat in your skincare. Choose something brand new that isn’t done during other parts of the day. Save it until right before bedtime to get yourself into the headspace of winding down.

Drinking tea and reading a few pages of a book is a perfect way to settle down for the night. Photo by Kat von Wood on Unsplash.

2. Early morning sunlight

We’ve heard the usual tips of not sleeping with your phone and limiting screen time so the blue light doesn’t impact your slumber. Sunlight, on the other hand, can help regulate sleep-wake cycles. Before your morning coffee or even brushing your teeth, go stand outside and bask in the sunshine for a minute. For those with ample time in the morning, slather on the sunscreen and take a walk. Sunlight exposure first thing after awakening has been shown to reset your natural circadian rhythm and help your body better understand when it is morning versus night. Combined with its power to suppress melatonin production, morning sunlight just might give your cappuccino a run for its money.

Sunlight can help your body regulate its sleep schedule. Photo by Daoudi Aissa on Unsplash.

3. Ambient noises

Lullabies aren’t just for restless babies. Music, or any sort of relaxing sounds, can be helpful in mentally rocking us to sleep. There’s a variety of options available, ranging from ocean waves, to podcasters with soothing voices. Once again, go with something that you normally do not listen to during the day so your body can understand that these are bedtime sounds. The right audio may help to quiet your inner thoughts and lull you to sleep.

Relaxing White Noise | Sounds for Sleeping

4. Hit the lights

Similarly to how sunlight first thing in the morning may help you to wake up, total darkness at night can coax you to sleep. Whether it be stray beams from the streetlight coming through your curtains or a charging electronic’s non-stop flashing, sometimes turning off the bedroom lights simply isn’t enough. An easy solution is to purchase a sleep mask, preferably silk or satin for its gentleness on the skin. Sudden submersion into complete darkness may be helpful for signaling to your body that it’s time to drift off into dreamland.

Invest in a sleep mask to completely block out any outside light. Photo by Rosemarie Jacob.

5. Push through nap time

Extra napping may be tempting if you’re low on sleep, but this can backfire when trying to go to bed at night. Try to keep napping to a minimum, perhaps with one short nap of no more than 45 minutes in the early afternoon so as not to impact your scheduled bedtime.

Excessive napping can cause problems with both falling and staying asleep at night. Photo by Wren Meinberg on Unsplash.

Sometimes falling asleep can be even more difficult than carving out the time to get enough of it. The effects of a poor night’s rest can compound if sleep troubles keep you up multiple times a week, and taking the steps to remedy it are vital to maintaining sound health. Sleeping is wonderfully restorative, and prioritizing good sleep will rejuvenate the body and mind to take on another day.