E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Getty Images stock
Adjusting to the daylight saving time switch can be toughest for night owls and people who are sleep-deprived.
For many Americans, the switch to daylight saving time is an annual rite of exhaustion. Gaining that extra hour of daylight at night means losing it in the morning.
The time shift disrupts the body's natural circadian rhythm, according to sleep scientists. So the alarm clock blares just as your internal sleep-wake cycle orders you to stay snugly in bed.
It's always harder to adjust to the "spring ahead" time change (as we did Sunday morning) than to the "fall back" change (on November 4), just as it's harder to fly east than west. Circadian rhythms are likely genetically determined and not fully understood.
But research shows that the natural sleep-wake cycle is slightly longer than 24 hours. Therefore, "the circadian clock prefers us to extend our sleep in the morning when permitted," making it easier to stay asleep later than to fall asleep earlier, said Dr. James Wyatt, a specialist in sleep disorders at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Genetic traits also determine your chronotype -- whether you are a night owl or a morning lark. Owls tend to have more difficulty with the daylight-saving shift, Wyatt said.
People vary greatly in their reactions to the sleep deprivation prompted by the time change. Some 70 to 80 percent of people aren't significantly bothered, said Dr. Shyam Subramanian, director of the sleep center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, and can adjust successfully in a day or two. Others yawn their way through the week.
For them, the consequences can be grave. Rates of workplace and traffic accidents, as well as of heart attacks, rise in the days following the spring time change. One study showed a nearly 6 percent rise in workplace injuries on the Monday after the daylight-saving switch.
People already sleep-deprived are likely to have the toughest time. "With work, school, family and social obligations, most of us carry a chronic sleep debt into the weekend," Wyatt said.
Wyatt and other researchers say people then spend the weekend trying to catch up. Even if they go to bed earlier, they can't easily fight their circadian rhythm. So they end up lying awake.
Though some argue that the time change is "just an hour," that amount of time is not insignificant, said Phyllis Zee, a professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., who is president of the Sleep Research Society.
People who are nodding off will insist that they are "just resting their eyes," said Zee. "But the data shows they are impaired from an attention and safety standpoint. People are not aware of their level of impairment."
Sleep experts suggest the following tips to dealing with the time switch:
- Perk up with coffee or another caffeinated beverage in the morning; avoid caffeine in the afternoon and evening.
- Expose yourself to daylight soon after waking. Doing so helps adjust the circadian rhythm.
- Avoid bright light in the evening. Computer screens mimic daylight and throw your circadian rhythm off.
- Practice good sleep habits, with a comfy bed, a quiet room and white noise to drown out sounds if necessary.
- Be especially careful while driving or engaging in other activities requiring full alertness.
Leave a Comment:
If your sleep cycle is so sensitive that an hour change causes you noticeable distress, you might want to see a sleep therapist. Maybe I'm strange, but I'm fine on 7-8 hours of sleep and equally as fine on 3-4 hours of sleep.
Good for you, some of us aren't as lucky.
I second that 'good for you'. I have a friend who also pooh pooh's my reaction to DST, but even though I'm still getting the 8+/- hours of sleep, it is different and the whole DST thing really affects me. Don't know why we can't just stay on standard time. There have been numerous studies done that show the 'energy' savings from DST just don't exist.
I'd prefer we stay on the DST schedule - it's a real bummer in the winter when it gets dark at 3:45 pm.
Hear hear. I've always contended we should fall back in the spring and spring ahead in the winter. Since it naturally gets dark early in the winter, why would you want to make it get dark even earlier? How does this save energy? Likewise there is no reason the sun needs to be out at 10pm in the summer. We should extend the daylight hours in the winter when we need it instead of the backwards way we do it now.
Why do some people assume that what works for them should work for others, and if it doesn't, they should just suck it up and deal with it? Don't you think that those of us who seem to need 8-9 hours of sleep (and rarely get it) would actually prefer to be able to do fine on a lot less?? If we could will it that way, we would. I get SOOO frustrated with people telling me I should somehow just adjust my attitude and my sleep needs would follow. Believe me, I've tried - but my body simply refuses to cooperate - trying to get to sleep earlier results in simply lying awake that much longer, and that extra hour means a LOT in the morning. So please, get off your high horse and quit assuming that if everyone would just will themselves to be like you, the world would be perfect!
It's not the number of hours you sleep, as the article clearly states.
The REST OF THE WORLD does not use Daylight Savings Time because it's a big fat joke! It just means you have to get up one hour earlier and be even more sleep deprived....in a nation that is already suffering from sleep deprivation. It serves no purpose and uses more energy than it saves. It needs to be done away with!
Well........ it would.
I love daylight savings time, the extra hour of daylight after work or school. I appreciate the extra hour for working in the garden, and just plain being outdoors while it is still light. Most of us have to work until 5 pm, so the extra hour of daylight is appreciated.
Because I am a morning person I love standard time and hate DST. Obviously the rules were imposed by night owls. DST does NOT save energy It does NOT save daylight. It just shifts the time. The energy "Saved" in the evening is USED UP in the morning. I wonder what idiot ever thought this made sense...
I'm with Gloria. I much prefer the DST, but my reasons are different. The most important one is that I absolutely hate getting up in the morning when its still dark outside, and I would hate it even more if it was still dark when I got to work at 7:30 or 8:00 am. It may get darker in the evenings when the time change happens in the fall, but I would much prefer dusk to occur when I am still awake than having to get out of bed when it is like night outside; it makes me feel tired, no matter how much sleep I got. I'd be very happy getting up every day just as the sun is coming up. Can't wait for retirement, when the time change will be a moot point.
Parts of the rest of the world DO use DST. I have been through it in Europe twice. They were especially tough springs because they changed the weekend before us so I had to deal with it two weeks in a row.
Chris, do you take naps during the day? Then you aren't "getting by" on just 3-4 hours of sleep. Add it all up. And, do you fall asleep instantly? If so, you are sleep deprived. Please stay off the road!
Not trying to take a dig at you, really. Just sayin'. And, if you do really only need 3-4 hours of sleep, lucky you. Einstein needed very little sleep.
It would be rough for a couch potato.....for a week. I have things to do outside in the summer months and the extra hour of day-lite is great. I look forward to it every year. It is always dark when I get up regardless. I don't intend to sleep my life away. Altho the season gives a few psycos something to study.
Why not just change it for 1/2 hour and just leave it there?
Sorry, but this is the way the world turns... literally. DST should be done away with as it provides no positive effect on the world. If it gets dark around 4pm, then turn on a light. We have electricity, and if no electricity, then light a candle.
$0.02
I don't know where anyone could think farmers had anything to do with daylight savings time. They only needed to know IF the sun came up and went down (technically it doesn't). The only importance has been for energy conservation. Years ago, it was important for daylight when the factories fired up and shut down. Well since most people lack jobs, it is loosing that point. BTW. Here on the 38th parallel, light would start breaking at 3:30am in the summer without DST.
Why don't we just split the difference and leave the clocks halfway between the spring forward and fall back, then we can be done with this idiotic clock changing twice a year!!!
"Expose yourself to daylight soon after waking. Doing so helps adjust the circadian rhythm."
I really had to laugh at this tip. How can you expose yourself to daylight if it's still dark when you get up?
Anybody that is negatively affected by a one hour change on one day needs to have their genes removed the human gene pool. What next, if it's partially cloudly, I can't go to work?
Er, no. Most of the rest of the industrialized world does use DST. South America, Europe, Australia and parts of Asia all use it. It all happens within a few weeks at the same time of year.
I've never spent much time in Africa or the Middle East. Perhaps someone else might weigh in on those regions.
It's not a big deal, hardly noticed it here in AZ
So I hope all the people that 'suffer' from this malady are telling their employers or prospective employers that they can't travel east or west a few hundred miles on business without becoming 'ill'?
I go along with the millions who feel the same way.....just get rid of the darn thing. This is old news.
If an hour is no big deal like some are saying then it wouldn't be a big deal to adjust it by one half hour and end it all together. Those of you that seem to think we are freaks because we can't make the adjustment right away---explain to me what you do for a living and what hour you wake in the morning before making blanket holier than thou statements. Troll rrobeson is on the top of that list.
Also troll rrobeson, this 'does' affect me and I am happily typing away on my lunch hour at work. I don't remember the article stating that people were missing work because of this. If you want to write your own story do it. Newsvine makes it simple for you.
Traveling from the West to the East is a tough adjustment if you have a schedule to keep. A three hour time difference is rough especially for those of us who actually have a life. Traveling from East to West is a different story because the adjustment is in the persons favor. Waking up early should be no issue there.
Franklin started the push for this in 1784 and with oil lamps being the prevalent source of light a savings could be realized but even then the goal was the same. Gain an extra hour of daylight for the sake of having an extra hour of daylight. It didn't take until the early 1900's, well over 100 years later. Every other reason mentioned to justify DST is just spin which has been proved by Indiana who stopped the practice and in turn realized an energy savings.
Like I said earlier, adjust it by half an hour and be done with it or from this point forward leave time alone.
I dread spring forward. I have restless leg syndrome and insomnia often, springing forward knocks me for a loop for weeks. Really why does the government do this to us? It has been shown that is does not save electricity. They used to say they did it for the farmers. I live in rural America the farmers don't live by a watch they could care less what time it is they get up and get their work done and go to bed. Seriously quit torturing us!
:). My granddad was a farmer for many years when I was a little girl. He got up with the sun and he and my grandmother went to bed not long past dark; after spending time together in the evening reading, or just chatting. This was before the concept of DST engineered by the government.
Funny how that farmer fallacy keeps getting repeated. As you said, farmers have never cared what the clock said. I do like DST better though, I would rather we just stuck with it instead of reverting to Standard time in the Winter. The intent was that if it were light out in the evenings, people would stay outside longer and not use as much electricity for lights. Most people just do whatever they were going to do anyway, and they don't care whether it's light out or not. I appreciate having some time in the evening to work in the garden, rather than having to do all of it on the weekends.
Before electricity, and clocks, it wasn't just farmers who got up with the sun and went to bed when it got dark. It's our industrialized society that is causing us to cram more and more activity into more and more hours leaving less and less time to allow our bodies the time needed to recover.
There is no reason for the time change these days. There is no "extra daylight". Change your schedule, not the clocks.
Changing the time is a way of changing everyone's schedule uniformly.
More and more the research is showing that for most of us, "changing our schedule" isn't easy. People who are naturally "night owls" show poorer health when forced to stick to a daylight schedule, and the same is true of "early birds" forced to work night shift.
I know that ever since I started working a 7-5 job, I have felt less alert because I don't get to sleep in as much as I did in college. Despite the fact that I don't get as much sleep now, I still have trouble going to bed and staying asleep - much more than I did when I got to stay up until midnight. It's not just a matter of adjusting, either...I've been working this schedule for over 5 years.
As a wise man once said (I think it was Sitting Bull, but don't quote me), "Only a white man would think that cutting a foot off of one end of a blanket and sewing it to the other end will somehow make a longer blanket".
@enough,
That was Stinking Butt, Sitting Bulls first cousin..
Well, no matter who said it, he was a very smart man!
I HATE this time change!! My internal clock is VERY stubborn and it takes me the better part of a month to adjust to this. I see no benefit to this anymore, and I wish the government would just abandon it.
Go to bed at 9 and wake up when you wake up naturally and you'll be fine.
It's not as easy as that for a lot of people, btw. I have always been one whose best time is from about 2pm until 1 or 2am. Not quite a night owl since I generally don't stay up most of the night, but not an early bird either. When I was working night shift, it was even harder since I was up about 7 or 8 hours past when my body wanted to crash.
No, I won't!! If go to bed at 9 I'll lie there awake until 10 or 10:30 when I naturally fall asleep. It isn't that easy!! Then on the flip side, my alarm goes off and I'm getting up at "6:00" when my body is screeming "It's only 5:00, go back to sleep"!! If we HAVE to do this, why can't we do it on Friday night/Saturday morning so we have the whole weekend to adjust???
But the government can't abandon it. After all, altering the DST schedule was the main thing that Bush did to help deal with the false energy shortage caused by Enron.
jello - Stop telling lies. DST has been in effect for decades. Bush had nothing to do with it.
@wryview: I believe what @jello was referring to was Bush extending DST, not actually creating it. That is why we Spring forward a week ahead of Europe and Fall back a week after Europe.
No one is stopping you - go ahead and get it done on Friday night then.
I would rather it stay on the daylight saving time all the time. It's dark in the morning when I get to work either way so I enjoy having the extra hour of daytime after work. It's not as easy as just coming in early to work either. I just can't make up my own schedule.
In the fall the days are already getting shorter so the fall back makes them shorter quicker for me.
I used to think this way too, until I learned if we did that, people on the wrong edge of the time zones would have it be dark until about 9am! That's pretty late in the day to just be turning to light.
But those of us who live on the other edge would have darkness set at about 3 PM. Personally, I love DST...want it light outside when I can get outside...mornings I'm at work and don't really care what the light factor is outside...
I grew up in Wisconsin...moved to Arizona in '83. No DST here. I can't tell you enough how much I love not having it. While everyone else goes thru this twice a year...we just cruise here and leave our time as is.
Love It!
I'm retired so I don't give a sh!t either way.
Raises cane for any of us that have to work with you. It's impossible working across time zones to begin with but you in Arizona and parts of Indiana have to be special. I understand the Amish. You folks in Arizona... well that's another story, isn't it...
This article appears every single year. And near as I can tell there is absolute no change in the wording.
Now that is amazingly observant, analystgirl. :)
I've noticed the same thing on astrology sites!
I hate daylight savings time. If you really need that extra hour of light after getting off of work then find a job where you get off at 4:00 P.M. instead of 5:00 P.M.
The so called reason for daylight savings is to save energy. Bull. It might save some electricity use at your house but it doesn't save energy. What do people do with that extra hour, sit in the dark? No. They jump in their vehicles (using energy) going to movies (electricity) or restaurants (energy) or get on their boat on the lake (gas), or drive a golf cart (electricity) getting in a round of golf.
I bet that it is the outdoor recreation industry and the entertainment industry that lobbied Congress to extend daylight savings time.
Actually DST was conceived in the 70's during the energy crisis. The idea was it would save everyone money and it did. That's why we still do it today. Bush just moved it earlier in the year and ended it later.
Actually, the first use of DST in the US was during WWI.
I also wish it would stay as daylight savings time all year round. Either way when I get to work in the morning, it's still dark, but having an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day is GREAT!
I particularly hate the "fall back" return to standard time, where it gets dark at 4:30. Bleh.
It's become more of an economic than an energy-conservation tactic now. Why waste good daylight when people are still in the sack when it can keep people out and about and shopping and buying stuff before the sun goes down and the body starts telling you to put the wallet away, go home, and get some sleep?
When I was working, I worked night shift so adjusting is even harder when you're already going against your natural rhythm. I'm not really a night owl, but not an early bird ether. Now, I sleep when I need to, a couple hours at a time, and am awake the rest of the time. Unfortunately, it makes keeping a schedule hard.
I'd like to discontinue the time change, too. I don't care whether it's standard time or daylight-saving time. Just pick one and stop monkeying around with our sleep schedules. In today's over-scheduled world, many people are already sleep-deprived and they certainly don't need this jumping back and forth.
Just get up and go to work. I need the SS.
Rog that RAs. I get up when I can smell the bacon and egg's a cookin !!!! I have worked for 50 plus years and finally I can say, "screw it" LOL
Why do we need daylight savings?
If it causes so many safety issues, and workplace incidents jump 6 percent, then why is a government that is "so concerned about our safety" that they make laws about seat belts, etc, not doing something to change it? Oh right, too busy covering the asses of corporations and bankers. Not to mention it has no monetary benefit like fines for not wearing a seat belt, blah blah blah. Let us just argue about it and never change anything.
Why do we adjust the time anyway? What value is it to society? Why don't they adjust the time 30 minutes to average the change out and leave it there, not to ever be changed again?
@Harry,
My thoughts exactly ..!!! O crap I forgot that would make to much sense...
The government knows what's best for you. Shut up and take it.
Thats right, nosferatu, Uncle Sam knows whats best for us, so shut up, and deal with it!
What a waste of time. We need to quit this DST stuff!
One more reason to cease this outdated American practice. (Apart from the millions of extra hours of unnecessary lighting/energy use it "creates" a need for across the country) I've been talking about the psychological effects of DST for over a decade now. Its time people "wake up" to end this outdated American practice. There is no longer a need for it.
Every year we get folks complaining about Daylight Standard time. I love it. I don't like "Standard Time." And I am a night owl. I want to it stay light after I get off work for as long as possible.
And that is NOT an issue. I dont care which time they pick but we are just saying pick one and leave it!