If there is anything I have learned these past few years, it’s to let go of things I cannot control. Generally, I am able to go with the flow pretty well, but when I remembered that daylight saving time begins this weekend, I fully panicked.
Let’s talk about the good stuff before I give you some tips and coping strategies for the coming time change. As a member of the human race, I generally prefer “springing forward” to “falling back,” because we get an extra hour of light to enjoy in the afternoon. For most of us this is good news (unless you’re an early morning runner, sorry), so let’s enjoy that for a moment.
Turning now to the challenges of daylight saving time: The clocks may simply shift forward, but your “body clock” won’t. Your biological rhythm of hormone release that determines when we feel sleepy and when we feel alert syncs with the natural 24-hour cycle of day and night. Your body’s natural intelligence is quite adaptable to seasonal shifts in light, but when the hands of the clock change, it’s like a swift kick in the shin. Essentially, it’s as if the entire country is waking up with an hour of jet-lag Sunday morning.
Losing that hour of precious sleep when the clock goes from 1:59 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Sunday, skipping the 2 o’clock hour altogether, can lead to serious sleep debt for children and adults who already have a sleep deficit (getting less than the seven to nine hours of sleep you need each night). Those who have a long commute or work long shifts will likely feel that missing hour for a week or so.
Knowing how important sleep is to our mental, emotional and physical well-being, it’s helpful to think ahead and use this weekend to prevent potential sleep pitfalls. Here are my suggestions for adults, teens and kids to spring forward with greater ease.
Adults
Stock up on sleep before the change so losing an hour of sleep Sunday won’t affect you as dramatically. Give yourself 10 hours in bed so you can be sure you’re getting the seven to nine hours of Zs you need to feel rested. Allow yourself to sleep in on Sunday as late as possible, and plan to spend the next weekend catching up on sleep as well.
Teens
This weekend my prescription for young adults is to prioritize sleep: Go to bed before midnight and don’t make any plans on Saturday or Sunday mornings so you can sleep in as long as your body needs to. This may need to be repeated for a few weekends to feel fully caught up.
Because young adults require more sleep (a full eight to 10 hours) and have a delayed sleep schedule, it can be hard to get the sleep they need day to day. A normal sleep pattern for young adults is to feel sleepy between 10 p.m. and midnight, then to sleep until 8 or 9 a.m. Teens who sleep in until noon on weekends are not lazy; they are paying back the sleep debt they accumulated during the week, when their alarm wakes them to go to school after only six or seven hours of rest.
Children
Most children will adjust easier if you “split the difference” between the old time and the new time. On Sunday, let your child sleep as late as they want to in the morning. It may seem like a full hour later than normal when they wake up, and if your child has a strong body clock it could take two or three weeks to transition back to their normal morning wake time.
Then, you will want to extend naps and bedtime 30 minutes later than normal. I know that seems strange, but hear me out: If “lights out” is normally 7 p.m., it can be 7:30 for several days (which really feels like 6:30 p.m. to your child’s brain and body, right?). This allows their body clock to slowly adjust to this new time and in five to seven days you can shift back down to 7 p.m. bedtime, and it will feel like the new normal. Alternatively, you could stay at the new 7:30 time and enjoy the extra evening light headed our way.
If you have a child younger than 5 and you need more detailed support around this transition, please check out my resources for infants and toddlers at bit.ly/35THftM.
For all ages, a great practice this weekend would be to listen to your body: If you feel tired in the evening, go to sleep regardless of what the clock says. If you wake up Sunday morning and you feel tired, put a pillow over your head and go back to sleep.
Stay consistent with your routines around sleep, put down your screens an hour before bedtime and consider putting up light-blocking curtains or using a sleep mask to help your body’s natural release of melatonin. Supporting solid sleep habits during this time change takes effort, but your body and brain will thank you.
Petterson lives in Moscow with her husband and their two children. She left public education to become a yoga instructor, sleep specialist and mindful parenting educator. If you have any concerns about daylight saving and sleep, she can be contacted via her website at www.kristinepetterson.com.
