Coping With Time Changes: Daylight Savings Time

5 tips to help you reset after the daylight saving time change

Daylight saving time officially ends at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, Nov. 3. And while many rejoice over the extra hour of sleep that comes with "falling back," messing with our body clock takes a toll. In fact, the shift in your body's sleep-wake cycle can disrupt your sleep for several days.

Being underslept has a long list of downsides. The evidence has piled up. Without adequate sleep, we set ourselves up for increased risk of anxiety, depression, weight gain, even dementia. So if you're trying to adjust to the time change or are just ready to change your sleeping habits overall, what can you do?

1) Open the blinds, or better yet, go outside! 

Try to start your day with a bath of sunlight. Open the blinds. And if you can, go outside for at least 20 minutes in the early to mid-morning hours. Studies show that daylight exposure in the morning tends to lead to better sleep at night.

2) Give up the afternoon latte. (Yes, really!)

There's a compound found in our bodies and brains called adenosine. Walker calls it "the sleepiness chemical." You want it to build up throughout the day so that you're ready to sleep when your head hits the pillow. But caffeine can latch onto the receptors for adenosine. "Caffeine comes into your system, and it hits the mute button on the adenosine signal of sleepiness, so it wakes you up,"

3) Move your body and get tired.

Exercise may help promote good sleep in two ways. Physical activity is known to reduce anxiety, so this alone may contribute to good sleep. In addition, exercise can physically tire you out. A lot of studies demonstrate the link between physical activity and improved sleep. 

4) Limit your evening alcohol intake. [and other intoxicants]

alcohol can block or interfere with deep sleep, making our sleep more fragmented. There's a lot of research showing alcohol's bad effects on sleep. After a night of drinking, REM sleep — the stage of sleep in which you dream more — tends to be suppressed. This may be especially true during the first part of the night, when there's still alcohol in the bloodstream.

5) Make your bedroom a screen-free, peaceful refuge.

Lots of us are tethered to our devices. But these electronics can expose us to a type of light known as blue light. And when we bring our devices into bed with us, it can interfere with sleep. How? The blue light can prevent or slow down the release of the sleep hormone melatonin — that's the hormone that signals to our brain that it's time to start dozing off.

So really try (and we mean this!) to read from an old-fashioned book or paper magazine at bedtime.

Excerpts of this article from https://www.npr.org/2019/03/20/705224359/do-this-today-to-sleep-well-tonight

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