Be Healthy as we "Spring Forward"

Daylight savings time is about to be upon us! I hear a variety of sentiments regarding this semi-annual change of our clocks, but most people dread it in some way at each end of the spectrum.
In the Fall, it’s nice that we gain an hour of sleep (or at least, sleep-opportunity). However, setting the clocks back an hour means that we will have fewer daylight hours in the evening, and in much of the country, it heralds the onset of cold dreary weeks and months ahead. I realize we are extremely fortunate in San Diego to have some of the best weather in the world, but this is a real issue for much of the rest of the northern hemisphere!
In the Spring, when we set the clocks one hour ahead, we know that better weather is coming, and that we will soon be able to enjoy some time outdoors in the evening with daylight to spare. However, this loss of one hour of sleep is something that impacts our energy, psyche, and health – possibly more than we even realize.

Matthew Walker, PhD, is a professor of neuroscience at UC Berkley and a sleep expert. He is the founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science and has published over 100 scientific research studies.
In his excellent book, “Why We Sleep,” Dr. Walker points out that there is a global experiment performed upon 1.6 billion people across 70 countries twice per year, and it’s called daylight savings time.
He notes that on the Monday after the time change in the Spring, when we lose an hour of sleep-opportunity, there is a 24% increase in the risk of heart attacks that day compared with a usual day. Conversely, in the Fall when we gain an hour of sleep-opportunity, that Monday there is a 21% decrease in the risk of heart attacks that day.
This same pattern can also be observed in the rate of car crashes, suicides, and even the harshness of sentences handed out by federal judges on the Monday after the time change.
 
Not only are these effects present on the Monday after we Spring forward, but there is what’s called a “blast radius” effect. That is, the effect is decreased but still present on the second day, almost recovered to normal levels on the third day, and only by the fourth day – that is Thursday the week after the time change – do the rates of these adverse events seem to return to their normal baseline levels.
 
Why do I point all of this out?
First of all, to impress upon you that when you think you are doing “fine” by getting 5-6 hours of sleep per night, realize that there really is an effect of being under-slept, whether you are specifically aware of it or not.
 
So now that you’re convinced that losing one hour of sleep in a week really matters, what can we do about it?
 
Here are some tips to get the most and best sleep this weekend and going into the week, and to ease the effect of the time change in the coming week.
 

• Get into bed as early as possible Saturday night and Sunday night. Even if you think you won’t fall asleep until your usual time, get into bed an hour before your usual time on these two nights. You’ll likely fall asleep at least earlier than you otherwise would, and you’ll start training your body to the new time schedule that is coming.

 

• Avoid caffeine on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. If this is new to you, I realize it may be a lot to ask. But consider the fact that caffeine has a half-life of 8 hours. That means that if you have a cup of coffee at 8 AM, you still have half of that caffeine in your blood at 4 PM, and half of that – or ¼ the original amount – in your blood at midnight when you should be getting your deepest sleep of the night. Even if you think you are sleeping soundly, this amount of caffeine will be disrupting your sleep cycles, robbing you of a certain depth of sleep, and causing it to be more likely that you will wake up to urinate or due to other disturbances.

 

• Wrap up your work and chores before dinner Sunday. Give your body and brain at least 2-3 hours before bedtime to start winding down and getting ready to accept any sleepiness that is coming on. This means no checking email, no doing taxes, and really avoiding electronics and screens. It’s the time for reading a book, catching up with friends or loved ones, and doing some light stretching to get ready for a restorative night’s sleep.

 

• Plan for Sunday to be an easy relaxing day. This is not the time to cram in an exceptional number of chores or a big trip or event that requires an unusual amount of mental or physical energy. Realize that your body and brain are running on a bit of a sleep deficit. Even if you basically feel okay, the time change has tapped into some of your reserves. It’s not a good idea to also be engaging in activities that tap a lot further into your energy reserves. Give your body a chance to catch up and adapt to what has just happened.

 

• Save important meetings or evening events for later in the week. Consider yourself to be running on this slight deficit of energy reserves until at least Wednesday. The more you prioritize sleep and self care during these days, the faster you will feel normal in the new time schedule, and the less of this silent impact it is likely to have on your health. This may sound like overprotecting ourselves, but losing sleep is not a trivial matter. Our bodies are strong and resilient as long as we respect what we area asking them to handle from all angles over long periods of time.

 

• Finish eating dinner before 6 pm or at the latest 7 pm this week. New research is showing more and more that quality of sleep and rhythms of the natural sleep cycles are disrupted when we eat close to the time when we go to bed. When we eat, our body has to expend energy to digest the food. Being in the process of digestion also signals our body that it is time to be active taking in nutrients. At night when it is time to sleep, the energy is diverted instead to healing and repairing damage that occurs to our body, nervous system, and immune system during the day. When we eat close to bed time, this shift in to repair and restore mode does not occur, and we lose the opportunity for this resilience and recovery to take place as it needs to each night. This can add up over time, contributing to increased risk for chronic diseases of all types – a topic for another discussion.

 
I hope these tips help you weather the time change smoothly, and even improve the quality of your sleep beyond just this week. Enjoy the newly found evening daylight hours this coming week, and let me know how you are doing!