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Ready or not, daylight saving time is coming this Sunday, March 12th. So remember we "spring forward" by moving clocks ahead one hour, which means you're losing an hour of sleep that night. It's hard to adjust to, and leaves some people feeling jet lagged when it happens at first.
Photo: Getty Images
Don't get it wrong, extra daylight in the evenings is a good thing. But the dark mornings can make you feel like you're waking up in the middle of the night. So why does it mess with us so bad? Well, it disrupts our internal clock, which can lead to sleep loss and poor sleep quality, and that can lead to bad health consequences. Experts agree that our cicadian rhythm does best in standard time, when we get more light in the morning and darkness in the evening, which is what tells your body it's time to wind down.
So, unless you live in Hawaii, parts of Arizona, or the U.S. Virgin Islands - where they don’t observe daylight saving time - now is the time to start preparing for the change. These things can help soften the shock to your system thanks to Forbes:
- Go to sleep an hour or so earlier on Saturday, March 11th.
- Skip that nightcap or heavy late-night snack before going to bed.
- Re-set the clocks for your kids a day or two before Saturday, and make sure that you start the “new” wake-up time on Sunday.
- Turn bright lights and screens off an hour or two before bedtime, which is a good practice for all nights.
- Get some sunlight on your face as early as you can.
- Be extra careful on the roads, whether you’re a driver, passenger, pedestrian or cyclist. Every year, the week after we change to daylight saving time, there’s a nearly 10% increase in car accidents (thanks for that stat webmd.com), heart attacks and strokes, so extra caution can’t hurt.