Adjusting to Daylight Savings Time
March 13, 2007
While we all pushed our clocks ahead one hour this past Saturday, not all of us have caught up to the time change, especially when it comes to our own circadian rhythm, or body clock.
The transition to Daylight Savings Time (DST) usually occurs on the first Sunday in April, not the second Sunday in March, and several sleep experts recognize the difficulty that some may be experiencing. “The change in time is only an hour, but it’s the change in light that makes a difference in how people feel,” explained Ralph Downey III, the medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Loma Linda University Medical Center, Calif., and a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. “An hour shift doesn’t seem like a whole lot, but it’s as if you’re behind the curve an hour a day until you get adjusted. It can influence your mood, your ability to get things done, your ability to concentrate,” he said. People are more prone to driving accidents, he added.
Most people can easily adapt to a one hour change, said Dr. Jose Loredo, the director of the Sleep Medicine Center at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center. “However, there are people who are sensitive to the time change, especially people who have insomnia and children who have an established routine. This can really throw them off and cause significant problems with their sleep,” he said.
The key to adjusting to DST is exposure to sunlight, Loredo said. “We can actually change our internal clock backward or forward depending on the exposure to light,” he said. “The change isn’t immediate, it takes some time.”
Loredo agreed that gradually adjusting your sleep schedule will help adjust your internal clock, but “the best way to advance your clock is being exposed to sunlight in the morning. Bright sunlight, not inside but outdoors without sunglasses, for an hour to two hours a day will advance your internal clock by an hour,” he said.
Loredo also says that a small dose of melatonin can help: “To advance your internal clock faster or further, you can take melatonin (the lowest dose possible, whatever you get in the store — cut it in half) at five or six o’clock p.m. It’s not a sleeping pill, it helps advance the clock.”
To help cope with the time change, The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends the following:
- Re-adjust your mealtime schedule by eating dinner an hour earlier.
- Be careful when operating machinery or driving on the day of the time change.
- Avoid naps, especially close to bedtime.
- Avoid turning to caffeine to wake you up in the morning and alcohol at night to help you sleep.
- Eat properly, drink lots of water and remain physically active.